Happy Eater was a regional chain of roadside restaurants in England and Wales aimed at families. It was prominent during the 1970s and 1980s as a competitor to Little Chef and became defunct in 1997.
It is now rather hard to find examples of the wordmark in use. These examples are the best ones I’ve found on Motorway Services Online; there a few more if you like looking at bad scans and vintage 1980 car parks.
The words “Happy Eater” are drawn red on yellow in Charleston which accompanies a (happy looking?) stylised mouth agape. Although the restaurant chain predates the 1980 release of the videogame Pac-Man, surely the logo was inspired by Pac-Man and must come after it (logopedia disagrees, but places this version of the logo between 1985 and 1993) [see comments].
Promo sticker with “I’m a” added in a different font
Promo badges. Left-hand badge has dodgy apostrophe placement; right-hand badge has “I’m a” in a different font, possibly Albertus.
.jpg)
Apex Corner, London, 1980s
.jpg)
Napkin
Sign near Birmingham
Taken in June 1981 in Purley: “Three things all in the past: AN 259, the Happy Eater chain, and the occasional extension of the 405 route to Handcross numbered 455.”
Taken in 1981 at the then new Friary Bus Station in Guildford
6 Comments on “Happy Eater”
A lovely post! Thank you, David. I have added a couple more images found on Flickr.
I looked into this: both the Happy Eater name as well as the symbol were filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on June 18, 1979. They were filed in the UK already on April 30, 1976, under Reg. Nos. 1,062,273 and 1,062,274 (name) and 1,062,276 (symbol). The Happy Eater mark thus predates Pac-Man! I have adjusted the date.
Detail from the Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Vol. 998 Issue 5
I was always under the impression that “Fat Charlie” was in fact the name of the chef figure in the logo for Happy Eater’s arch-rival Little Chef and the Guardian article linked to in David’s post seems to confirm that.
You are absolutely right, Storm – thanks for catching this! I have removed the reference, in order not to spread any confusion. Shown below is the real “Fat Charlie” as used by Little Chef:
Great finds! Sorry for mis-reading The Guardian article re Fat Charlie.
He sure does look like a happy eater
Fab article, I’d love to find a sign one day, sadly even the one at the very top of this article has now gone at some point over the past year. I have a massive collection of Happy Eater stuff, with plenty of internal documents, staff mags, letters, photos etc, one day maybe I’ll put up some sort of website.