MANKATO — Tom Frederick Sr. has the last remaining Happy Chef up for sale, but he's not in a hurry to sell and admits that with Highway 169 set to be shut down next summer, the location isn't going to ...

Oct. 16—When a Facebook post went up Oct. 9, the chatter ran faster than that of a busload of kids lined up to listen to a message from the Happy Chef statue. It was 60 years ago when the Frederick ...

MANKATO – After more than two decades of silence, the Happy Chef has a lot to say. He's got some thoughts on dining. "That's not a flying saucer!" the 36-foot-tall fiberglass foodie boomed this week ...

MANKATO — Adrian Swales takes his position as "Keeper of the Statue" seriously. As the new owner of the last remaining Happy Chef restaurant and its iconic Happy Chef statue out front, Swales knows he ...

Tom Frederick Sr. spent a lot of time in the car during much of his career, crisscrossing the Midwest on two-lane roads and the just-developing Interstate Highway system. “I put on 80,000 miles a year ...

MANKATO, Minn. - Like a spoon-toting Lady Liberty, for 50 years the Happy Chef has welcomed visitors to Mankato. For the last 20 - silently. But no more. Last Friday, the kitschy 38-foot statue got ...