Brainerd lakes home to award winning radio

By Sheila Helmberger

The six radio stations owned in the Brainerd lakes area by Hubbard Broadcasting are no strangers to winning awards.

This year, Nikki Lyter, Digital Brand Strategist for Hubbard Broadcasting, was named No. 1 Best Marketing, Advertising and Designer in the Brainerd lakes.

Lyter addressed the honor in a note to the residents and businesses of the area, crediting the team effort it takes to excel.

“We know that great marketing stems from a great team, a vision for growth, collaboration of ideas and strategies, and dedicated partnerships with local businesses. Thank you and kudos to our entire sales and marketing team at Hubbard Broadcasting & 2060 Digital, I couldn’t do what I do without the great team I work with every day.

“At 2060 Digital, we specialize in digital strategies that connect businesses with their audience through tailored, data-driven campaigns. From local businesses to large enterprises, we work closely with our clients to create impactful marketing that delivers results.

Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to many more opportunities to help businesses in our community succeed!” and decided to join the Brainerd Jaycees.

For the Fifth year in a row, one of its six local stations, WJJY, was named the 2024 Best Radio Station. The radio station has also been awarded the National Association of Broadcasters Crystal Award for exceptional public service in 2001, 2003, 2007 and 2021.

Peterson said he started getting into Street Fest, especially the Ribfest they hosted.

“There were professional teams there, backyard barbecue teams, and I couldn’t help but want to get involved with that,” Peterson said. “I just found a passion for smoking meat and being part of the community. That’s really where it began.”

Falling in love with barbecue and competing, Peterson was doing competitions across Minnesota. After coming up with the barbecue team name of Pit Happens and winning a few awards for his barbecue, Peterson decided his next step would be to open a food truck.

“So in 2016, we got our license for vending, then we built up from there,” Peterson said. “And I was able to purchase the food trailer in 2020.”

Peterson said before they purchased the truck, they would set up a tent at Roundhouse Brewery when it was located at the Northern Pacific Center to sell his barbecue. Looking to make the most out of competing and serving the local community, Peterson attended Myron Mixon’s barbecue school in Unadilla, Georgia, to bolster his skills.

“I got a whole whole list of ideas,” Peterson said. “So I think that’s the fun part about the food truck role, is you can create about any dish you want. It just doesn’t have to be just barbecue ribs or pork.”

From smoked pie to ravioli and tacos, there is nothing that can’t be made on a barbecue, Peterson said, and that’s what makes it fun.

Though he misses the days of competitive barbecue, Peterson said he is happy to bring his family and friends along to help him with his new adventure as well.

Whether it is a wedding or a birthday party, when planning events he makes sure that is the only event they have for the day. They never double book a day, he said.

“That’s the only event we’re doing that day because I want people to know the food’s fresh and made just for them,” Peterson said.

Peterson said he wishes there could be more events featuring more food trucks to help draw in more people.

“I want all the food trucks to be there,” Peterson said. “We work together, we talk about what we’re making, so we’re not clashing and having the same things. Especially if there’s two barbecue guys, we like to make sure we’re not clashing too much or anything like that. Camaraderie, although there’s still that competition.”

Along with competing and running a successful business, Peterson still loves volunteering his time to cook for the women’s shelter or Brainerd Community Action.

“It’s nice to be able to be that person, too, to give back to the community,” Peterson said.

Peterson said without all the support from the community when they first started he doesn’t know how far they would have made it, so they always look at ways they can serve the community that supported them in jumping at the opportunity.

“We are just a family, a small family of friends who have been together for 10-20 years — high school buddies,” Peterson said. “And I think that’s what’s interesting about us. It’s the same group of us and we’ve maintained that friendship through barbecue and working together. … With barbecue, we can still catch up and be buddies, and that’s what’s important to us — to me.”

Morey’s Seafood Markets

When Paul Burton, general manager of Morey’s Seafood Markets, started with Morey’s in the summer of 2006, they were still in their original building, “the blue store,” south of their current location on Highway 371, and they had a full-service restaurant inside the store.

Moving into the Baxter Village location, next to the Baxter Cub Foods store in 2007, the decision was made not to include a restaurant.

Fast forward to 2015, Morey’s moved to its current location at 15811 Audubon Way in Baxter. In the summer of

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2016, Burton said they decided they wanted to bring back hot food service.

Burton said his wife, Elsye Burton, vice president of Morey’s, brought up the idea of bringing the restaurant back to the store in some way after a lot of their long-time customers kept inquiring.

“We did a quick look at doing brick and mortar, doing something with the existing building or doing an addition,” Burton said. “When those rough ballpark bids came in, it was very high. And my wife had a brilliant idea. She said, ‘Well, how much does a food trailer cost?’ So we did some research, found a trailer and bought it.”

Burton said it was around that same time they decided their food trailer was not going to travel and would only be operated on their property.

“Just to have simplicity because the concept behind it was to be able to offer hot food on our property,” Burton said. “We didn’t have any desire to play the game of driving it around and doing everything. We have enough going on between having this retail store here and Motley, staffing-wise. In our minds and in our opinion, it was just too much to do and was just easier to operate it here.”

Burton said their main clientele are people on lunch break who are looking for a quick, healthy and fresh meal.

“People can come here and have food within 10 minutes,” Burton said. “They still have a little time to eat here if they want to. Otherwise, everything’s boxed and packaged to go.”

From five different options of fish tacos to a Minnesota staple walleye sandwich, the food trailer’s menu is based on the menu they had at the old store, Burton said.

“It wasn’t a stab in the dark,”

Burton said. “We knew what we wanted to do and what the people wanted, and that’s why we have that menu, and it doesn’t change. I think the other thing that helps us is that our food trailer is seasonal, operating from roughly the middle of May through the middle of September. There’s enough variety on the menu that people can eat different things, but then it’s gone in September.”

With the trailer only open for lunch, Burton said it is staffed by two fulltime employees, Jack Foran and Eric Zelinski, who when not in the trailer, can be found behind the counter helping customers and preparing food. Not looking to bite off more than they can chew, Burton said they still get asked to bring the trailer to events but he has to tell people the trailer does not move. When they first opened they thought of doing some events, but then where would the line be drawn, he said. So it stays in front of Morey’s Seafood Markets, serving customers lunch from 11 a.m to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

The Iron Waffle on Wheels

Working at The Iron Waffle Coffee Company in Lake Shore since 2019, Samantha Bennett, one of the co-owners of Iron Waffle Coffee Company, said they were approached in 2022 by the previous owners, asking if they would like to buy the business.

Samantha, along with her parents, Greg and Becky Bennett, and her sister Isabella Bennett, became co-owners of the Iron Waffle in April 2022.

“Between the two of them (Samantha and Isabella), it’s kind of theirs,” Greg said. “They kind of run it and manage it. I mean Becky and I are both working full-time jobs, so we ended up in the food truck every once in a while but it’s mainly these guys. These guys are kind of the nuts and bolts of everything.”

Greg said almost immediately after working a grad party where they had the waffle makers under a tent, they decided to add a food truck to bring liege waffles to the masses. They thought if they could make that happen, why not add a food truck? So they reached out to Ice Castle to have a custom trailer built for them.

“I figured it doesn’t work out, I can drill some holes and we’re going ice fishing,” Greg said.

They were able to get it outfitted by the end of the summer and were able to attend a few events around the Brainerd lakes area that year, including the Jaycees Ice Fishing Extravaganza.

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Samantha said she and her sister take turns working on the food truck, with the other working at the store.

Given the busy nature of the Fourth of July weekend, both Samantha and Isabella were at the shop on Sunday, July 7, as Greg and Becky took the trailer and slung waffles at the 2024 Heritage Church block party.

But running and operating a food truck comes with its own set of challenges.

“Securing all the appliances, that was a little bit of a learning curve,” Samantha said.

“You’ve got to remember to secure the microwave and the fridge. Like connected to the wall. Yeah, the fridge tumbled to the side the first time driving it.”

And not only that, Becky added it was important “learning not only do you secure the fridge to the wall, but you also lock the fridge,” recalling how they almost had a big mess to clean up one day.

Samantha felt this summer had been the best they have had in the food truck. They were able to be out more in the truck and, as always, had fun while doing so.

Big AL & ODB’S Meat & Greet Food Truck Co.

Starting out in a career a lot differently than most other food truck owners, Jessie Kresa, co-owner of Big AL & ODB’S Meat & Greet Food Truck Co., was a professional wrestler for 24 years with TNA Wrestling, where she was know as ODB.

After “leaving” wrestling, Kresa said she bottled a barbecue sauce she created and was selling it out of her trailer while working for wrestling Hall of Famer Jimmy Hart at his bar in Daytona Beach.

Kresa said her love for smoked meats came from her breaks in wrestling. In between traveling the country to put on shows, she would come back home to Minnesota to relax and visit with family.

“When I came home from the road, I would be home for a couple of days,” Kresa said. “I’d always have get-togethers at the house, just hanging out, barbecuing and whipping up some sauces.”

While living in Daytona Beach and selling her barbecue sauce on the side, Kresa said one of her friends suggested she open a food truck, and so in 2017, she got a small trailer with some money she saved up.

“I’m going to see what happens. I mean, doing it by myself. Oh God, I just cringe every time I think about it,” Kresa said. Everyone who wants a food truck thinks they can jump right in, but it’s not for everyone, Kresa said. She recommends if someone is looking to start a truck, they reach out to a truck owner to find out more about what it entails and even ask to work a shift on the truck to see if it is truly something they want to do.

The first day she opened up was during Daytona Bike Week, one of the biggest bike rallies in the country. “And I did everything,” she said.

“There have been a lot of ups and downs in it,” Kresa said. “And people just look at the big picture, like when we’re at big events and we have a nonstop line and stuff. But they don’t see that it took us years to get there.”

Kresa said she met her husband

Alan Leaf — also known as Big AL — while working in Florida. Deciding she wanted to move back home, Kresa said she asked Leaf if he would come with her, saying the food truck could support both of them. He said yes and they moved north.

“He has helped out a lot, because he’s now the pitmaster,” Kresa said.

“So instead of, when I had to do everything myself my first four years, now he’s all about the barbecue and kind of leveled the food truck up where it’s at now.”

Loving her job, Kresa said she always looks forward to events and meeting fans of her days in the ring and making barbecue loving fans as she goes.

“I’m always interacting, just not getting beat up for a living anymore,” Kresa said. “But it took years for us to be where we are now.”

Minnesota Food Truck Association

In 2013, John C. Levy, a lawyer with Sapientia Law Group trade association, started the Minnesota Food Truck Association after attending a meeting in the cities and seeing food truck owners not being fairly represented.

Levy said he became interested in opening a food truck after talking with his friend Andrew Zimmern, host of Food Network’s “Bizarre Foods.”

“In 2012, we decided to create a food truck and it was called AZ Canteen,” Levy said. “It was outstanding because (Zimmern) curated the food and everything, alternative proteins like goat meat and all sorts of things. It was a great menu.”

Around December 2012, Levy said he attended a food truck meeting in the cities as they were looking to talk to the owners about some ordinances and regulations.

“I looked around the room and thought, this group is not organized. And basically, that was the founding of the Food Truck Association,” Levy said.

Levy said he started by reaching out to the old timers who had been operating in the Twin Cities for a while.

Hearing positive feedback from them, he put in the footwork to get in touch with everybody and for an association.

Their original objectives were based around creating best practices, advocating for the industry, helping with legislation and mentoring new owners.

“We were advocating for some sensible changes to food truck regulation, because it’s highly over-regulated,” Levy said. “You have to deal with the Department of Health, you have to deal with food issues, you have to deal with property issues, and so many different government interests are involved. A lot of this regulation was overlapping and redundant. So one of our big objectives was to try to get rid of some of that redundancy.”

With Levy and Zimmern both having full schedules, AZ Canteen only lasted a few years, but the Food Truck

Association was off the ground and running.

“The Food Truck Association had become very successful, particularly its website, particularly for newer, less experienced operators,” Levy said. “So, I continued in my capacity as the founder and president of the association. The association grew a lot to include the vast majority of trucks in the Twin Cities area and continues to expand to outer Minnesota trucks.”

In the last few years, the association has changed its main purpose from one that does eight different things to one which is focused on mentoring, best practices and helping fellow food truckers along. Levy said he always aims for the association to provide more to the owners than they pay to be in the association.

“I loved the concept, food trucks are sort of an inexpensive step into the American Dream for a lot of people who didn’t have a lot of opportunity,” Levy said.

TIM SPEIER, staff writer, can be reached on Twitter@timmy2thyme, call 218-855-5859 or email tim.speier@ brainerddispatch.com.

Experts in their field, trusted and Insured

By Sheila Helmberger

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