RESTAURANT CHAIN MAY BRING NEW MEANING TO THE TERM 'BURGER JOINT'

By Paul King | Nations Restaurant News
Published: December 13, 2004

LOUISVILLE, KY. -- The menu of the Cheba Hut "Toasted" Subs restaurant here reads like a stoner's dream.

Thai Stick, White Widow, Northern Lights, Shwag and Acapulco Gold are featured items, but they're not marijuana joints. They're sandwiches.

Cheba Hut is the creation of Scott Jennings, who said he came up with the theme from the Cheech and Chong movie "Nice Dreams." Jennings operates Cheba Huts in Tempe, Mesa and Tucson, Ariz., and Fort Collins, Colo.

Culinary student Josh Lee and his mother, Kim, run the Cheba Hut here. The marijuana theme is featured on the menu and in the decor: 2-foot-long papier-mache joints hang on the walls, a three-wall mural painted by Kim Lee features a turtle smoking marijuana and a marijuana-leaf clock is displayed, for example.

Josh Lee told the Courier-Journal that the restaurant theme is meant to reflect the connection between marijuana and food.

"There just seems to be a huge correlation between stoners and munchies," he said.