This piece is part of a larger project to document the culinary resilience of southeastern Minnesota’s Houston County during the pandemic. You can read more about my Crystal Creek Citizen-Artist Residency project here.
Spring Grove is a small town of about 1,200 people in the southeastern tip of Minnesota. Highway 44 runs right down its main street, something fairly rare for business districts in rural towns. This contributes to Spring Grove’s vibrant economy, along with several annual Scandinavian celebrations, weekly farmers’ markets during the summer, a variety of local producers, beverage companies like Spring Grove Soda Pop, the Spring Grove International Film Festival, and a thriving grocery store.
Pat Longmire and his wife Debbie have owned and operated Red’s IGA since 1989 when it was a smaller store downtown. In 2000, they built the current 15,000 square foot store at the edge of town and continue to redefine its product offering by adding hot food, coffee drinks, organic produce, and more!
Red’s IGA is home to Fat Pat’s BBQ, a Texas-style BBQ joint run by Pat’s son, Patrick. They recently launched a full menu serving brisket-topped burgers, BBQ sandwiches, and scrumptious sides every Friday and Saturday. [Read the piece I wrote about Fat Pat’s BBQ here.] Patrick credits his father for being very open to new ideas.
Patrick’s wife, Jayme, suggested adding a coffee shop to the offering at Red’s IGA, and Jo’s Coffee House opened in August of 2019. The menu includes classic coffee shop drinks like lattes and cappuccinos, nitro cold brew, as well as pastries, a stage for live music, and a drive-up window.
This entrepreneurial family team wants the in-store experience at Red’s IGA to stay fresh and relevant. “It’s why we do things like Fat Pat’s BBQ or Jo’s Coffee House. We keep finding things like this. It’s why we have the customer base that we do,” Pat tells me.
Fat Pat’s BBQ
“We gotta do it all here. You have to drive a long way to find a store like this,” his son Patrick observes. This is typical of small towns, where small grocery stores have to compete with larger franchise stores in the next town for market share. It’s especially hard to operate a store while staying flexible and inventive.
Despite COVID-19, the team at Red’s IGA continues their pursuit to become an ideal one-stop-shop as grocery store, coffee shop, world-class BBQ joint, and local foods destination. They hope to be a regular stop for people on the drive between Decorah, IA and La Crosse, WI.
Pat mentions that COVID-19 is keeping some people out of big box stores. “If you want to spend half a day shopping, sure. Go to those places,” Pat says. But so far, he thinks Spring Grove residents are staying more local in hopes of staying safe. The team at Red’s IGA is focused on creating a healthy shopping environment for their customers.
At the time of my visit in July, the mask mandate isn’t in place yet, but Red’s is still encouraging customers to wear masks and observe social distancing guidelines while shopping. “It’s about being respectful and neighborly,” Pat tells me.
In the early days of the pandemic, customers asked for grocery pickup. In response, Red’s IGA created an online ordering system and started using the drive-up window at Jo’s Coffee House to distribute groceries.
Red’s IGA continues to do some catering but with a modified menu. Sandwiches are already COVID-safe, but they switched to chips instead of spoon-heavy sides and ditched the taco bar. They also paused their First Wednesday fundraising dinners. The team is staying positive and trying to adapt whenever possible. “People are doing the best they can,” Pat reports.
Pat is known by many as the Meatball King. He ships his meatball mix to loyal fans all over the country, something he’s been able to continue through COVID-19. He’s also famous for his pork chops often served at football games. I hope to try one someday.
Pat and the team at Red’s IGA aren’t only focused on meatballs and BBQ. They recently started selling blue oyster mushrooms from Reconnected Farms LLC, a local producer of specialty and medicinal mushrooms launched during COVID-19. Tanner Sanness posted this about his experience getting their mushrooms into the store, “I talked to Pat for the first time ever on Monday morning and they were in his store by Monday afternoon. They are truly awesome supporters of local producers!”
You can find Contadina cheese from Capra Nera Creamery, vegetables from Owl Bluff Farm, coffee from local roasters Heart Rock Coffee and Carlson Roasting, and much more. Almost every time I’ve chatted with a producer in Houston County they’ve said, “You can find my product at Red’s IGA in Spring Grove.”
Spring Grove is lucky to have this forward-thinking team behind their local grocery store creating customer-focused shopping and dining experiences. Because, when times are tough, it’s nice to know your local store is there for you.
As Pat says, “People like nice things. It’s nice to have a nice grocery store.”
Elisabeth A. Fondell is a writer, potter, and food enthusiast living in the rural Midwest. She is currently working on Food Stories From Houston County, a project documenting stories of culinary resilience in Minnesota’s southeastern-most county through the Crystal Creek Citizen-Artist Residency.
Elisabeth began focusing on place-based food writing after receiving a grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council to create a body of work celebrating the intersection of food and culture. See that exhibit here.
