My wife and I are on a mission to visit all the oversized local landmarks throughout Minnesota. This blog chronicles those visits and covers other related topics.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Repurposed Happy Chef

March 19th, 2008 - Princeton, MN

Repurposed Happy Chef

Our trip got started with the super awesome incredible happy surprise I mentioned. As we were driving north on 169, I spotted this Happy Chef statue along the side of the road. I turned around as soon as I could and we pulled up in front of him for a photo. We had no idea he was there and we were both very pleased to have found him. It really was a great start to the trip.

This Happy Chef was obviously one of the lucky ones. He looks very good and has a nice new paint job. He now stands in front of A-Z Restaurant Equipment Company just north of Princeton and is clearly visible from the highway.

I don't know the history of this statue, so I can't tell you which Happy Chef restaurant he belonged to or how long he's been at A-Z. If anybody knows anything about this guy, I would love to hear from you.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a find! He's in great shape too. Nice to see someone appreciates him.

advcomp2019 said...

FYI, I found a head from a Happy Chef in the hills where I live.

Unknown said...

Whaaaaaa? Is there a Happy Chef killer?

Tell me more. How did you find it? Were about do you live? Are you going back for a picture?

advcomp2019 said...

For the past few months since the restaurant's owner that use to have Happy Chef then changed to Oehler Brothers finally closed the doors in Onawa, Iowa, there was a rumor going around the town that the head was still around. The reason for the rumor started was during one of the rain storms it fell down the hill.

Plus the old owner told me that he had to destroy the whole Chef. He told me that he took it to the local junkyard, but some how the head got out of the junkyard. I do not know if the body is around or not.

Anyway, I went to the rumored location near Turin, Iowa. I did find the head. So I tried to take two photo one with and one without the digital zoom, but both has optical zoom. It was 6:30 in the morning when I took these two photo.

OLinks to photos:
Happy Chef's head 1
Happy Chef's head 2

Unknown said...

That is awesome! Both those photos are great. I'm so glad you shared this. I think I will add a marker for it on my Iowa map.

Unknown said...
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