Food or front: You wanna side of crack with that?

This amazing logo couldn't prevent the Minneapolis Harold's from getting into trouble.

There's a little game I like to play, similar to jam band fan or Taliban, where you try to decide if a certain restaurant's motivation is to actually feed customers, or something else...

If you long suspected something shady was going on at the Chicken Shack on Broadway, you were right.

Turns out the Spencer brothers were recently sentenced 20+ years for dealing dealing drugs for several years out of the north Minneapolis restaurant.

According to court documents, federal investigators believe that the now-closed Harold's Chicken Shack franchise Frederick owned on W. Broadway was used to help launder profits from a major cocaine distribution ring that operated in the Twin Cities from 1998 until 2007. The documents said that Antwoyn Spencer, a member of the Street Kingz rap group, was the leader of a major drug ring that laundered money through a number of real estate transactions, including the purchase and renovation of the Chicken Shack.

I actually ate at that Chicken Shack several years ago, but noticed nothing particularly out of the ordinary. The food was fine, but not nearly as memorable as the customer who insisted on buying my friend and I sodas--by that I mean Cokes, not coke. (Monicrack, can you confirm?)

In any case, I'm wondering if there are more Twin Cities restaurants that are simply fronts for ilicit businesses. While a few suspects pop to mind, it's not really approprate for me to speculate...though if you want to do so in the comments section, I'm not gonna stop 'ya.