Trademark statue’s grin. “Come on in.”
WINONA, Minn. – Although without a great view, the Happy Chef restaurant at Gilmore and Highway 61 had huge picture windows. The airiness was right as family place or for morning coffee and chitchat. It opened un 1976 as part of family-owned Mankato-based chain of 65 restaurants. The Winona place closed in 2003. Twenty employees had to find jobs elsewhere. Later it was remodeled onto a Quizno’s sandwich shop, which didn’t work out well. The building was eventually razed, pretty much where the Goodwill store and Subway shop stand. Today only one Happy Chef remains, in the chain’s Mankato hometown. What happened? The explosion of fast-food drive-throughs, the growth of mixed dining-drinking establishments, and sports bars and theme restaurants whose walls were thematically decorated with few windows looking out.