Serving up Spam: Concession stand opening near museum

Published 9:58 am Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Tim Duren stands inside the Spam Mobile in front of the Spam Museum in Austin. The Spam Mobile opened on Sunday and will officially open this Thursday for the next three months.

Tim Duren stands inside the Spam concession stand out front of the Spam Museum in Austin. The concession stand opened on Sunday and will officially open this Thursday for the next three months. — Matt Peterson/matt.peterson@austindailyherald.com

The Spam Museum experience just got a little more interactive.

On Sunday, Austin resident Tim Duren opened his Spam concession stand in the parking lot of the museum near Hormel Food’s Corporate South offices, allowing visitors to eat a Spam-based meal following their trip through the museum. Duren and six or seven employees will run the stand, which offers regular Spamburgers, a “flavor of the day” Spamburger, chips and soft drinks. The stand will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

“It just seemed natural to have that concession trailer down at the Spam Museum,” Duren said.

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Duren brought the idea to Hormel, and the company got on board. A couple of months ago Duren signed a contract that gave his concession stand the green light to run outside of the Spam Museum.

“It was kind of neat to see it all happen,” he said.

While this will be the first time Spam-based meals have been sold in front of the museum, Duren is no stranger to selling the luncheon meat out of his trailer. He sold Spamburgers at the Mower County Fair several years ago, and has run a concession stand at the Minnesota State Fair for the last six years.

“I’ve been in the concession business for a long time,” he said.

While Duren hopes the feature will attract tourists to visit the museum, he said the stand will also be a nice feature for Austinites who want to stop by and grab a meal.