Former Restaurant Tallent chefs run food cart

Theresa Ochoa walked up to a food cart during her lunch break in her red high heels and examined the workers wearing T-shirts that read “Happy Pig.” She looked at the empty grill at the corner of Indiana and Kirkwood avenues before asking, “What are you selling?”

“Pork belly and grilled asparagus,” said the man in the Happy Pig T-shirt.

“Is that all?” said Ochoa, who works at the IU School of Education.

“Well, we sold out of everything else.”

After hearing it would cost $6 and only take two and a half minutes to prepare, she said, “Do it.”

The Happy Pig Street Food company was an invention of two former chefs at Restaurant Tallent, a local establishment known for its gourmet food.

Tony Cooper and Eric Sjaaheim have taken their kitchen to the corner of Indiana and Kirkwood avenues every Wednesday and Thursday since February, and they already have regulars.

IU Junior Chris Lewe calls himself an avid Happy Pig eater. He’s even bought a shirt.

“I haven’t had anything I didn’t love from this place,” Lewe said as he bit into his chili mac sandwich. “It’s not the most vegetarian friendly food, but it’s what I love. I love pork belly.”

Lewe said he often catches up with the cart on the weekends when it’s parked outside of Atlas Bar or by the courthouse square. The Happy Pig tweets its location, and Lewe uses his phone to follow.

Sjaaheim said the weekends are their busiest times, usually serving between 80 and 100 people on Friday and Saturday nights. Often, people will see them on the corner for lunch and only then remember that they ordered their food on a previous late-night adventure.

IU alumna Mandi Jacobs smelled the Happy Pig one night after stumbling home from the bars. Sjaaheim calls her an OG — original — and Cooper often tells her to go home because she’s been to the Happy Pig about 15 times.

“I’ll have the chili mac,” Jacobs said as she read off the menu.

“We don’t do that,” Cooper said in an attempt to make her go away.

She ordered the chili mac sandwich because it’s the only thing on Thursday’s menu that she’d never had. Jacobs said she has converted many of her friends to Happy Pig
lovers.

“This dude makes the best biscuits and gravy I’ve ever had,” Jacobs said as she pointed to Sjaaheim.

Jacobs is from southern Indiana and said the biscuits and gravy are hard to top there. But when she orders it from the Happy Pig, she licks the foil clean every time.

“It’s gourmet food on a budget,” she said. “They’re from Tallent, and the food is the best food you’ve had, but it’s cheap and you can hold it in your hand.”

Cooper and Sjaaheim use all local food. They order their pork from Gunthorp Farms in LaGrange, Ind. They said working at Restaurant Tallent helped them meet the local farmers because the restaurant serves all local food.

“You guys don’t sell hot dogs do you?” asked a possible customer.

“No. We’ll probably never sell a hot dog,” Sjaaheim said.

Their menu constantly changes, Cooper said, but whatever is on the menu is usually based off what Cooper and Sjaaheim like to eat. One Thursday menu offered the crispy pork belly, the chili mac sandwich made of pork sausage and white cheddar cheese and the pulled pork sandwich with barbeque and slaw.

Until a few weeks ago, both Cooper and Sjaaheim were still working at Restaurant Tallent part time. But now that business has picked up and they’re serving people about 20 hours a week, they’ve made the Happy Pig theirfull-time job.

Business is slower now that most of the students are gone, but they said they expected that. However, Sjaaheim said they are now getting a lot of first-time customers and more permanent Bloomington residents.

“Our crowd is definitely changing,” Sjaaheim said. “People that work around here are starting to come around, a lot of law school people.”

The cart’s name is based off the idea that a happy pig makes better bacon, which makes happier patrons. Customers are always waiting in line from the moment Sjaaheim writes the menu on his chalkboard until they run out of food before closing time.

“Thanks, I’ll see you next week,” said a customer as he grabbed a paper towel.