Knowing Your Neighbors: Redneck ‘Meats’ BBQ
After 14 years of running the well-known Arts Café in Moose Lake, management sold the café to new owners, who transformed it into a barbecue restaurant.
MOOSE LAKE, Minn. – After 14 years of running the well-known Arts Café in Moose Lake, management sold the café to new owners who transformed it into a barbecue restaurant known as Redneck ‘Meats’ BBQ.
Dinel and Lance Hollarbach have been in the barbecue business for almost 19 years, and now they have branched out, opening their own restaurant in Moose Lake.
The husband and wife team say they had been running their own food truck for a while but they couldn’t standby idle anymore as they wanted to fulfill their dream.
“You need to make it happen and people thought we were kind of crazy for starting during COVID but you know, this was the time so then by the time we can open again, everything should be perfected,” said Dinel Hollarbach, the owner of Redneck ‘Meats’ BBQ.
Dinel grew up in Moose Lake and had planned to open up a restaurant with her best friend, Derrick. However, Derrick was killed in a car accident and Dinel opened up RedNeck ‘Meats’ BBQ on his birthday – November 1st.
Dinel says that during these times, the community of Moose Lake has been supportive the whole way through, buying up their barbecue, burgers and homemade breakfast.
“They have really tried during the pandemic to order as much as they can when they can to help us stay open so we can stay the distance and when we are able to open the dining room, they want to come and see the changes to this building,” said Dinel.
And the history of the building isn’t lost on the new owners as they celebrate the previous establishments at the site. From Dix Café to Arts Café and now, being Redneck ‘Meats.’
“And knowing Arts since I was a little girl, I still keep multiple things with Arts Café and Dix Café all around here to show people that we’re not pushing out history, we’re embracing our history,” said Dinel.
And the origin of the name? People always call Lance Hollarbach either a hillbilly or a redneck and the name stuck to the business.
“Go big or go home,” said Dinel. “My husband and I have always been that way. Anybody who’s gotten food on our food truck, like our mess sandwich and our big mess are aptly named because you need a fork. You’re not going to pick that pulled pork sandwich up and just eat it. Ya need a fork.”
To help support the community during these times, the restaurant is asking for donations in order to provide a free or highly reduced traditional meal on Christmas Eve. Reservations for the meal are needed by noon on December 21st.
