Happy Joe’s Pizza & Ice Cream is celebrating 40 years in Crookston this weekend. Happy Joe’s first opened it’s doors on July 25, 1979, and has been serving pizza and ice cream ever since.
Manager Brooke Panzer said to honor their 40 years Happy Joe’s is offering specials all weekend. “On Friday, we have 0.40 cent fountain pops for dine-in only with a purchase,” said Panzer. “Saturday is our big day. We have 40 percent of large single topping, dine-in or carryout only. With that, we’ll probably have some door prizes and some raffles going on. Can’t say what yet and we’ll have Mark handing out pieces of cake. Just hoping to have some fun that day. Sunday we’re ending with $0.40 single scoop ice cream cones for dine-in only.”
The 40-year celebration isn’t just for the restaurant. Employee Mark Ecklund has been working since day one and says things are very different today. “It was different when we first started to what it is now,” said Ecklund. “We didn’t have delivery and all that stuff. It was just come in to eat. We were really busy the first 10-15 years because people came to eat from all over because it was something new and different.”
Ecklund said wages were much lower when he first started and estimated he’s made more than 1.6 million pizzas. “When I first started my wage was $1.75,” said Ecklund. “It’s kind of amazing with how much you make today. We figured I’ve made about 1,629,000 pizzas since I started as kind of an average. When we first started at lunchtime, we’d go through 100 Little Joes. Businesses would call I need 20 Little Joe’s for here and 15 for here. When lunchtime came, you had to have like 100 Little Joe’s ready to go.”
Ecklund said two memories stand out about working at Happy Joe’s, a tornado a few years ago and a gas leak. “Two things stand out, and they’re both kinds of weird things,” said Ecklund. “One was this used to be a gas station and Robert’s restaurant. They had the big gas tank underneath, and it just stunk, and we were all getting headaches and stuff. So these two guys came in like in spacesuits with these little zappers. People were eating, and back then people could smoke in hear, and they were going around with their little wands. They were like can you get everyone out, there is a leak in the gas tank, and if they light up the whole place could blow up. So we had to get everyone out and then, of course, it stormed the next day, so we got a big puddle because they were digging the tank up. The other one was when we had that little tornado over by Salem’s, and we had to get everyone into the bathrooms. That was my first emergency plan.”
