Ikes Chicken Shack (Sisseton, Webster, Corona: for sale, home, movie theater)

[demtion35]

Many years ago we used to drive from Minnesota into South Dakota to eat at a restaurant, a wonderful place to say the least.

After the meal we would all go into an old time movie setting and watch old films silent, black and white and so funny of The Three Stooges, Laural and Hardy and others.

What a fantastic time this was and Im thinking this was in the 1970s or so, coming from Breckenridge MN.

Does anyone have a rememberance of this place or is it still around?
Its name was Ikes Chicken Shack

[leroyleroux]

Are you thinking of the place in Browns Valley, MN? I can remember an aunt that used to take her family there quite often, and I thought it odd to go to another state for chicken, but they were religious. Anyway, I dug up this blog post:

My mom used to take me to this restaurant in rural Minnesota called Ike's Chicken Shack. They had a smorgasbord all-you-can-eat set up. If you were under 12 years of age, you pay what you weigh. So I weighed about 68 pound. My mom paid 68-cents. They also had all these exotic birds, silent movie theater, about 8 monkeys in a huge jungle-gym cage, a lama and a black bear.

I spent all of my time with the monkeys. One time I saw someone take their chewing gum, stick it on the end of a long stick and send it through the double fence to the monkeys. The monkeys pulled off the chewing gum off the stick and chewed it. And then they would pull it out of their mouth like taffy and fight over it. Like bad children. I was so excited!
The next time I went there I came prepared with a pack of Hubba Bubba chewing gum. I played this game of gum-fight with the monkeys all day. Then in the car ride home my sister discovered a big wad of chewing gum in my hair. Somehow the monkeys must have tossed a wad of gum into my hair? After trying every chewing gum removal method we could think of we finally had to cut my hair of

Possibly the place you are thinking?
Edit - I guess the town sits right on the SD border.

[demtion35]

Yes thats very possible, I always thought it was in SD, only because I was young at the time and there was this lady from church who everytime we went there she had to have the bus driver stop so she could get out and kiss the ground on the SD side, beings she was from South Dakota.
I, at the time thought this was funny or strange being about 8 or 10 years old at the time.
Thanks

[Maude Kipz]

I just made a post in the food forum about seafood, remembered Ike's fried bullheads that were on the buffet, went and googled the place for nostalgia, and ended up back here.

My family went there once or twice a year until I was in my early teens and they shut down the buffet/zoo/silent movies/everything that made the place worthwhile. I remember it well and I miss it alot.

There was the zoo that you had to go down a bunch of stairs for. The bear was named Eki (Ike backwards) and there were pot bellied pigs, llamas, pygmy goats, and a talking green macaw.

The bathrooms had saloon-style doors (this was weird to me as a kid because you could easily see the stalls) and there was an arcade that even into the late 90's was filled with OLD games (original arcade mario, the racing game where the road was just white blocks and the car was stationary and solid orange, Q*bert, etc)

I watched tons of three stooges, charlie chaplin, and laurel and hardy movies with my dad there. There was free popcorn in back and they had an organ that someone played while the movies ran. I remember downstairs that there was a sort of built-into-the-wall aquarium on the bottom floor but I only got to see it a couple of times because we were always sat on the top floor where the buffet was.

I remember the scale for kids too. Awesome way to decide price and I don't remember the adult price being bad either. Sometimes my family would just get takeout fried chicken and fries, but I was always a sucker for the bullhead. I would eat it until I was nearly sick and it was never mushy like bullhead normally is.

its really too bad that the guy that bought the place turned it into a bar-only and messed it up. Found an article online that says its been torn down and replaced with housing property... what a waste.

[Raean]

I LOVED going to Ike's. We went there every year when I was a kid. I wish it were still around, but I guess it was too unique to last

[us55840]

Ikes chicken shack is no more. Was there a few weeks ago (09/2010) and everything is gone except part of the building and it's for sale....looked like it had been for several years.

[ronrex]

I used to teach high school in Corona in NE SD from 1978-1980. Shortly after I started teaching there some of my students told me about Ike's Checken Shack in Brown's Valley MN. We went there quite often on the weekends while I was teaching in Corona.

The food...especially the froed chicken was the absolute best. Also enjoyed the old Laurel and Hardy shows and I remember playing foos ball there also. What a great time to spend a Saturday nite.

I wish it was still there, but I understand it hasnt been there for a number of years.

[LUV2COOKINSD]

Wish Ike's was still open. We usually went there several times a year. There wasn't any place really to eat out. We used to go fishing and stop there to eat. Those were great memories of growing up!

[mrgiese1990]

I remember going to Ike's Chicken Shack with my grandma and grandpa back in the '80s.

It was the first buffet I remember going to, before Old Country Buffet, Golden Coral, etc. The theater was still going, but I never went - but I remember the Laural and Hardy Statue on the movie counter. Also the small zoo outside.

It sounds like Ike Haugland originally sold in 1986 - I don't know how long the second owners kept it going.

see: [url=http://ort.stparchive.com/Archive/ORT/ORT06072011p05.php]The Ortonville Independent*June 7, 2011*Page05[/url]

[tijuca]

I certainly always thought Ike's Chicken Shack was in South Dakota. When I was growing up (living in Webster), every fall we went to see the changing colors at Sica Hollow, somewhere by Sisseton I think. On the way home, we stopped at Ike's Chicken Shack. Tradition.