Road Tips

Elmer's Authentic Texas BBQ - Battle Lake, MN

Last fall, I wrote about the side trip I made to Elmer's Authentic Texas BBQ outside of Battle Lake, MN here.  I had met the owner, Tim Nanson, at the River Rockin' Ribfest in Davenport earlier in the summer.  I was on my way to Fargo in the middle of October, so I wanted to stop in and have dinner at his place.

Being that Elmer's Authentic Texas BBQ is smack-dab in the middle of the western Minnesota lakes region (see map), they cater primarily to people who have summer homes in the area.  They go to a limited operation schedule after the end of September.  It so happened they were closed that night when I got there.  I was bummed. 

During my recent trip up to North Dakota, I decided to stop in at Elmer's and surprise Tim and have dinner.  I made it around 6 p.m., but it turned out that I was the one who was surprised.

Oh, Elmer's was open, but I was greeted by this message on their marquee out front.  New ownership.  Hmm...  I wonder what happened to Tim?  And closed on Tuesday?  It was a Monday night so I was lucky.  Geez, I would have been pissed had I come all this way out of my way on a Tuesday night.

I went in and was greeted by a cute little blond girl who showed me to a booth.  I noticed immediately the decor was a little more bright than when I was there last fall.  I said to the girl, "So, Tim doesn't own this any longer?"

She said, "No, my older sister, Mary, owns it now."

I asked what happened to Tim and she said, "He moved back out to California to be closer to his family."

Mary Wilson, who worked with the original owner, Elmer Neumann, when he first moved to the Battle Lake area from Texas, bought the place from the Nanson's earlier this year.  She also worked there when Tim Nanson ran the place.  She has a partner in the business, Matt Oothoudt. 

When Mary first opened this year, she had Elmer come back in and help her get started, showing her smoking techniques, changing the sauce back to Elmer's original recipe and just making sure things were going OK.  She also changed the decor a bit, repainting the walls to a lighter color and making the place a little more presentable.

I ordered up a beer and took a look at the menu.  In addition to the various barbecue items, they'll do steaks and burgers at Elmer's.  Well, I wanted barbecue, but I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted brisket or ribs.  Suddenly, I found on the menu where I could order both - the combination platter of a quarter pound of brisket and a half rack of baby back ribs with a choice of two sides for $15.95.   Sold!  For my two sides, I took baked beans and onion rings. 

When the platter came to me, I was a little underwhelmed with the portions of meat.  The half rack of ribs was actually only about 5 or 6 bones, and the quarter pound of brisket was only three slices.  They were very good, though.  And the sauce was very good, as well.  Except they only give you a small container of sauce - they don't keep it on the table.

I liked Tim Nanson's sauce, but thought it could have had a little kick to it.  I bought some of his sauce at the ribfest last year and I did some experimentation.  I added a tablespoon of garlic powder and a quarter teaspoon of cayenne to the sauce.  I thought it picked it up tremendously.  Well, Mary Wilson's sauce, supposedly the original Elmer's recipe, was even better.  It was much more thick than Tim's sauce.  It did have that nice little after kick to it, and had a distinctive black pepper taste.  And it was served warm.  Maybe that's why they didn't keep any on the table. 

The baked beans were OK, but were better when the sauce was added.  And the onion rings were also, OK.  Nothing special.  Actually, they were a little cold when they came out. 

I saw that they sold the sauce in pint, quart or gallon sizes.  I asked the waitress if I could get a quart of the sauce and she said it was no problem.  Well, the problem was that she came out with a styrofoam quart cup of the barbecue sauce with a plastic lid on top.  Since I was traveling and had another 1800 miles to drive that week, I thought, "Oh, great.  One sudden stop and that's going to be all over the car."  But when I got to the hotel that night, I went to the front desk and had them use packing tap to keep the lid on.  There was no spillage and I transferred the sauce to a quart jar when I got home and it's resting comfortably in the refrigerator. 

Being that Elmer's Authentic Texas BBQ is about 35 miles off the interstate, it's definitely out of the way when you're going from Minneapolis to Fargo.  I don't know if I'll be back through, but I wanted to try it at least once.  But if you're in the western Minnesota area on vacation, and you don't mind a little drive, Elmer's Authentic Texas BBQ is worth the trip.  Based on the amount of people in there on a Monday night, they must do some pretty good business in the summertime.  

Elmer's Texas BBQ - Battle Lake, MN

This is more of a tale of woe than a review of a barbecue place.

I struck up a quick friendship with Tim Nanson from Elmer's Authentic Texas BBQ from Battle Lake, MN at the annual River Rockin' Ribfest in Davenport this past August.  I felt that Tim's ribs were the best of the lot of traveling rib vendors that weekend.  His sauce could have stood a little bit of re-vamping, but overall I thought he had the best ribs.

I told Tim that I travel up to Fargo from time to time to see a dealer up there and that I'd be sure to stop in the next time I went up.  The next time happened to be about a month ago when I was traveling between St. Cloud, MN and Fargo.  I thought, "Well, I'll just stop in and see Tim and get some of his ribs!" 

Battle Lake is off of Interstate 94 a few miles.  Actually, it's off I-94 by about 35 miles if you approach Battle Lake from the south.  Elmer's is actually out in the middle of nowhere, about five or six miles north and east of Battle Lake, surrounded by dozens of lakes and bayous that populate that area of west central Minnesota (see map).

Elmer's history is sort of unique.  A Texan by the name of Elmer Neumann retired in the lakes region of western Minnesota (it's usually the other way around) in the late 80's and early 90's.  He missed having a good Texas pit barbecue joint.  So he went back to Texas, bought a two ton barbecue pit and hauled it back to Minnesota.  He and his wife opened Elmer's Authentic Texas BBQ in 1993. 

In 2002, Tim and his wife, Ursula, bought the restaurant from Elmer and Tim promised to keep up the great tradition of Texas-style barbecue that Elmer had worked hard to recreate in Minnesota.   

My stomach was doing jumping jacks just thinking about trying some of Tim's ribs in his restaurant while I was driving up to his place.  I got thru Battle Lake and headed north on Hwy 78 toward Elmer's.  My mouth was watering, I was fully ready for a pig out of monstrous proportions.

I came around a curve and saw a lonely building off to the east side of the road.  It was Elmer's!!!  However, there were no cars in the parking lot, there were no lights on inside and the sign out front wasn't lit.  THEY WERE CLOSED!!! 

I about crapped on the spot.  I drove all that way and pulled in to see that it was closed.  Then it hit me - a lot of restaurants and businesses in the lakes areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin are seasonal businesses.  There haven't been tourists or vacationers around here for a month!  CRAP!!

Well, it just so happened as I was walking around the place, I ran into Tim and his wife as they were leaving the side door of the restaurant.  He was on his cell phone and when he saw me, he immediately recognized me.  He hung up the phone and I said, "You're Tim, right?"

He said, "Yeah, and I'm sorry I can't remember your name but you're from Davenport!" 

I said that I was on my way up to Fargo and thought I'd drop in for dinner.  He said, "Oh, man!  We're closed tonight!"  Tim explained to me that this time of year they're open only from Thursday thru Sunday nights. 

I said, "Oh, of course.  I sort of figured that out when I pulled in and there were no lights on." 

He said that from mid-May thru about mid-September, they're open 7 days a week.  He said that they'll close for three nights through the fall, and then when December 1st comes, he's only open Friday and Saturday nights.  He said he may not even open from mid-January to early March, then it's back to four nights until mid-May again. 

He felt bad for me.  He said, "Man, you should have called before you came up.  I would have had something for you to eat.  I don't even have a beer in the place because my beer guy is coming tomorrow." 

I told him that I wanted to come up and enjoy the ribs just as any customer coming off the road would.  I said that his ribs were so good in Davenport that I wanted to see how good they were in the restaurant.  He said, "Well, I think you'll like 'em even more in here." 

I told him that I had experimented with his sauce.  I told him that I thought it could have used a little zip, so I took a cup of his sauce, mixed in a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper and a teaspoon of garlic powder and let it set for about 3 hours.  I tried it later on and it helped it out tremendously.  He said, "I don't have a hot or spicy barbecue sauce.  I'll have to give that a try."

Before I left to go find another restaurant, Tim said, "Hey, man.  I'm really sorry that we weren't open.  But, seriously, next time call me.  Even if we aren't supposed to be open that night, I'll come in and make something for you.  I really do appreciate that you came all this way to give us a try."

I told him that I only travel to Fargo between May 1 and October 15, so it will be next spring before I can get back up that way again.  He said, "Well, call me.  We'll do it up right for you." 

I was so bummed when I drove out of the parking lot, thinking that I'll more than likely have to eat fast food that night because it was 8:30 and I was an hour and a half from Fargo.  Yeah, it was my fault for not calling in advance; or even remembering that restaurants like Elmer's close up right and left when the summer is over. 

Oh well.  Now that I know exactly where it is, I'll be back.  His ribs were that good in Davenport... 

(Update - I did make it back to try the ribs at Elmer's, but found out that Tim Nanson had sold the business.  Click here to see the entry of my visit.)