Hello, Spring! Gordy’s Hi-Hat Opens For 65th Season

CLOQUET, Minn. — The arrival of spring in the Northland means many things — warming air and melting ice.  But in Cloquet, the opening of Gordy’s Hi-Hat is all about spring, as FOX 21’s Jack Hagberg reports.

For over six decades, Gordy’s has prided itself on serving food to a community that clearly holds a warm, deep-fried place in its heart.  And it’s that food and service that keeps customers coming back year after year, as Gordy’s celebrates 65 years.

“I’ve tried just about everything, everything is good,” said Jeanine Benoit, a customer at Gordy’s.

Benoit has been coming to Gordy’s ever since it opened in 1960, going on dates with her husband all the way back when it was a drive-up.

“It’s just so nice to be with friends, and keep coming back year after year. Its just a well-established place, nice and clean, the service is wonderful,” said Benoit.

Gordy’s is now in its third generation of business, and Sever Lundquist, the grandson of Gordy himself, says he’s seen customers who have been coming in for as long as he’s been around.

“We have people that are third generation customers, where their grandparents came in back in the sixties, and now they’re parents, and their grandkids are coming in. So its really fun that we’ve gotten know a lot of these families in the community for the last 65 years,” said Lundquist.

It’s not just the customers who find themselves returning every season.

“We have two cooks that have worked with us for over forty years now, those are our two head cooks, actually my grandparents hired them back in the eighties. We have several other of our kitchen staff that have been with us for twenty plus years as well, and then even our front house staff, we have some guys that are with us for 15 almost 20 years now too,” said Lundquist.

Looking towards its 65th year, Gordy’s continues to pride itself on doing things exactly the way they’ve always been done, from great food to stellar service. And making sure that, whether it’s grandmas or Guy Fieri, there’s no shortage of friendly faces to be found.