Building a better beast

In July, Sweet Pea, an 8-foot-tall mummy-like mascot that stood in front of the Cigars & Stripes restaurant and lounge for years on Route 66 in Berwyn, Ill., was spirited away.

This brief clip shows what ol’ Sweet Pea looked like:

Sweet Pea from Jay Hagstrom on Vimeo.

It turns out Sweet Pea wasn’t stolen. Daryl Harris Studios spent the past five months or so “reinventing” Sweet Pea. The “futuristic space-alien-borg-mummy” now is 10 feet tall. Just in time for Halloween, the revamped Sweet Pea was unveiled Thursday during the opening night of Cigars and Stripes’ annual Freaktoberfest.

He now looks something like this:

According to one report, the new Sweet Pea has “a giant rotating chicken wing in his stomach.” Cigars and Stripes is located at 6715 W. Ogden Ave. (aka Route 66) in Berwyn.

In a news release, Harris said his artistic style meshed well with making a bigger and better Sweet Pea:

“I like to tinker with electronics and build creative things with recycled parts,” said the artist. “Experimental musical devices are where my true interests lies, this is an extension of that.” […]

“Accepting this job was a no-brainer. I grew up a sci-fi kid and thought I could design a classic monster with a futuristic cyborg presence using tubes and wires — not to mention the wings at this place are the best I have ever had! I just had to take on this project.”

Cigars and Stripes owner Ronnie Lottz aims to make his establishment “a strange place for nice people” and urges customers to “drink responsibly, eat recklessly.” This video by the Berwyn Development Corporation captures the place’s irreverent and cartoonish vibe fairly well:

People like Lottz and his affable but unique vision make the Mother Road more memorable.

(Photo courtesy of Berwyn Development Corporation)

4 thoughts on “Building a better beast

  1. It appears to me thatthis has taken away from the spirit,the tradition and intent of keeping Rout66 and things along it traditional.
    My thought was to keep everything as orginal as possible .
    This new age mummy takes away from that look

  2. L
    Let me rephrase .I think when you add all the new technology to it as they have this one ,I think it takes away from the tradition.
    Repairing it or cleaning it up is fine ,it is the tubes and all the other stuff added to it that now makes it look like Ogden Ave. not route 66

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