Flavor Flav launches fried chicken restaurant in ... Iowa? We offer prize to 1st Minnesotan to eat there

"The Colonel better watch his back."

​The acronym WTF was invented for news like this: Earlier this week, former Public Enemy rapper and reality TV star Flavor Flav opened his first fried chicken restaurant in, of all the places on the planet, Clinton, Iowa.

Clinton is a town of less than 30,000 people about 60 miles outside of Dubuque, which itself is about 100 miles from anywhere. The bizarre location of the new Flav's Fried Chicken, if you're wondering, is the hometown of Flav's business partner, but the modest beginnings haven't stopped the golden-grilled, wall-clock-wearing rapper from proclaiming that he hopes to one day give KFC a run for its money. "The Colonel better watch his back, G!" he's been quoted as saying. "The Colonel might end up in my fryer!"

That's quite a boast, which got us thinking: Could Flav's chicken be that good? Normally the Hot Dish will go to the ends of the earth for a good food story, but Clinton seemed a bit beyond the end of the earth. So instead we're making a proposal: a prize to the first Minnesotan who eats there and tells us what it's like.

Flav's entry into fast food isn't as strange as it might seem. His family once owned a diner in New York, he attended cooking school in the late '70s, he's worked as a chef at a courthouse and schools in New York, and he has previously sold his own 99-cent wings at a restaurant in Las Vegas owned by his current business partner's brother.

Only six hours--one way

​Flav professes to have his own secret recipe and says he seasons the meat as well as the breading. The result, he says, "tastes like that deep-down, southern-fried chicken." (Flav talks more about his chicken in the video below.)

As tempting as that may be, we're not willing to drive more than 300 miles to check it out, and we doubt many Twin Citizens are. But if you happen to be passing through Iowa anyway, here's what the Hot Dish is proposing: Be the first to send us incontrovertible photographic proof that you've eaten at Flav's Fried Chicken, along with a brief review of your meal, and we'll award you a $25 gift certificate to the 5-8 Club. By "proof" we mean a photo of you or an issue of City Pages next to a clearly marked storefront or restaurant artifact with the Flav's Fried Chicken name or logo. (We'll also need permission to publish the photo on the Hot Dish.)

Send your picture and description to hotdish@citypages.com. The deal will be valid for two months, till March 24. And if you see Flav there, tell him City Pages sent you.