Taste of Texas finds home up north at Primal Eats

Explaining their business as “Texas Style BBQ Meets Wisconsin,” Primal Eats takes their Northwoods connection seriously, tucking their business away in the forest outside of Gillett. The drive out is worth it to many to find one location operating as a craft meat smokehouse, restaurant, caterer, venison product producers and much, much more.

But, before Primal Eats was the ever-expanding business it is today, they started off as a side project.

General Manager Isaac Follett explained that in 2019 conversations about Primal Eats began as a way for the founding business Apple Creek Whitetails, a trophy whitetail hunting ranch, to produce venison products for their hunters.

Follett shared their humble beginnings, “We built a small sausage making and meat processing facility and started by producing products for hunters that were coming here. That continued to expand into us beginning to import venison from New Zealand and making sausage products that we could sell both for retail and wholesale customers.”

In the fall of 2020 they launched a storefront and began selling refrigerated products like meat sticks and smoked salmon.

With this small business being successful, the family then began forming plans to establish Primal Eats as a restaurant with offerings not easily found in this area.

“We moved to Texas in 2000 and we kind of seasonally went back and forth between Texas and Wisconsin since then. There were a lot of barbecue places that we fell in love with down in Texas and we wanted to bring a similar concept of that back here for Wisconsin. That’s kind of how the restaurant came about after we decided, ‘Yea, let’s put a restaurant together,’” Follett said.

After the decision was made, Primal Eats went from an idea to a restaurant in just 64 days.

“It was a fairly fast moving project,” Follett recounted.

While many businesses suffered during COVID-19 cautionary actions, the open-concept dining area meant that customers could order at a window, spread out amongst the picnic tables and collect their food when a buzzer alerted them.

In 2022 Primal Eats constructed their indoor dining area and took shape into the business that most would recognize today. There have been additional projects to expand the location, with Follett equating it to “a living organism that continues to grow and always morphs into something new.”

One of the new markets that Primal Eats has recently entered into is manufacturing shelf-stable products like meat sticks.

Follett explained the importance and impact of this new product, “Originally, what we launched with was the manufacturing side, and we continue to grow that as well and we hope to take our products nationally. So, our e-commerce side of the business is growing rapidly as well.”

The Primal Eats beef brisket meat sticks are made in four different flavors, all of which are available through their online storefront, in hundreds of stores across the state and could soon be on Amazon, Follett said.

Other markets that the business has moved into includes selling heat-and-serve meals at the BP gas station in Cecil, which Primal Eats makes in-house. They also travel with their food truck, host events in their indoor space and offer catering.

Any trip to Primal Eats is guaranteed to be a memorable experience, but even more so for those who come for live music. Performers are on site during the summer every Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening to enjoy while dining, playing with games outdoors or trying a local beer from their 40-tap self-pour wall.

Follett was excited to share that the third-annual Primal Fest, an all-day music event with multiple plans, is slated for the end of August.
With summer full of product manufacturing, music events and hungry customers flocking to the business, the team behind Primal Eats has yet to let this fast-paced growth intimidate them.

“It’s been a lot of fun here, everything keeps us on our toes,” Follett said.

Primal Eats is located at 14109 County VV, Gillett, and is open 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday as well as 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. To follow along with their business, visit www.primaleats.com or visit their Facebook page, Primal Eats.