Still Greased Lightnin’

MINNESOTA STATE FAIR 2026

Andy’s Grille founders Bob Andrus, 91, and Pat Andrus, 90, still spend the 12 days of the Fair working with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren

The family behind longtime State Fair diner Andy’s Grille pose for a portrait. Parents Pat Andrus and Bob Andrus, center, with children L-R) Mike Andrus, Cyndy Andrus, Michelle Hickey and Joe Andrus. photos Courtesy of Michelle Hickey

Pat Andrus, left, and Bob Andrus prepare buns for the famous Philly cheesesteak sandwiches at their State Fair restaurant then known as Andy’s Diner in approximately 1988 or 1989. The 2026 Fair marks the 40th Fair season for what’s now called Andy’s Grille, and both Pat and Bob — now in their 90s — can still be seen on the Fairgrounds regularly.

Bob Andrus, the 91-year-old patriarch of the family behind longtime State Fair diner Andy’s Grille, smiles in the restaurant on Aug. 24, 2026. Andrus, nicknamed “Andy” as a Minneapolis high schooler, still works at the Fair with all four of his children and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Jared Kaufman — Pioneer Press

In a photo in a collage display, Bob Andrus, the patriarch of the family behind longtime State Fair restaurant Andy’s Grille, performs a line dance to the song “Greased Lightnin’,” likely in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The restaurant’s staff have performed the dance every hour, on the hour, for much of its 40-year history on the Fairgrounds. Courtesy of Michelle Hickey

Muralist Danielle Flicek fills in details on an original painting inside State Fair restaurant Andy’s Grille on Aug. 24, 2026. The work depicts music icons of the 60s, 70s and 80s, in keeping with the restaurant’s retro diner theme. Jared Kaufman — Pioneer Press

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By Jared Kaufman

jkaufman@pioneerpress.com

At age 91, Bob Andrus — the “Andy” of Andy’s Grille — is still a State Fair regular.

This year marks the 40th State Fair season for his family’s restaurant, which started in 1987 as a small diner on the Fairgrounds about a block away from its current spot. And Bob still works every day of the Fair, though his job looks different now than it did four decades ago.

Today, Bob and his wife, Pat Andrus, a.k.a. “Mrs. Andy,” who’s 90, spend the 12 days of the State Fair soaking up family time and schmoozing with their legion of fans.

“He can go anywhere on the Fairgrounds and people will stop him on the street and say hello, ask for pictures,” daughter Michelle Hickey said. “I think that keeps him young.”

Bob and Pat’s four children run the restaurant, with a crew including several of the couple’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“See, they’re starting to think like I do, out of the box,” Bob said. “That’s how I’ve always done everything. Out of the box.”

‘What have we gotten into?’

Pat and Bob Andrus married 70 years ago, a few years after meeting as high schoolers at the since-demolished Minneapolis Central High School. After living in Germany for a time during Bob’s military service, the couple moved back to Minnesota and settled in Rochester.

In the late 1970s, their son Joe Andrus took a job slinging French fries at the State Fair. A few years later, his brother Mike Andrus started working at the Fair, too.

When a church dining hall moved out of their building between the Grandstand and the Midway before the 1987 Fair, Michelle said, Bob and his family decided they should take it over. The church had served diner-style breakfast and burgers, and Fair officials required the replacement to maintain the same menu — although Bob loves a Philly cheesesteak, so they got the Fair’s blessing to add those. Ice cream and apple pie were also on offer; booze was not, Mike said.

How’d that first year of Andy’s Diner go?

“Hell,” Bob said, laughing. “We were like, what have we gotten into?”

At the time, none of the Andrus family members had food service experience outside the Fair and, suddenly, they found themselves inventing a new restaurant from scratch. Michelle, who co-owned The Lexington in St. Paul for a few years in the mid-2010s, was the breakfast cook; Mike and Joe ran the Philly grill; sister Cyndy Andrus, who’d later become the mayor of Bozeman, Mont., helped her parents with food prep and front-of-house duties. They commissioned tall “Andy’s Diner” signs to mount on the building’s roof; those original signs now hang on the wall at Andy’s Grille to the right of the main counter.

“Everything had to happen all instantly,” Michelle said. “We all had different roles, but we still really had no idea what we were doing, other than we had this huge Philly grill up front, which drew people in.”

‘We got it figured out’

An early appearance on the KSTP lifestyle show “Good Company” also drew people to the diner — too many people.

“We had these huge lines, and it was just Mike and I cooking and we couldn’t keep up,” Joe said. “Orders just kept coming and coming and we’d get further and further behind, so we had to come up with a way to slow things down so we could catch up.”

So the siblings hatched a plan: They created a line dance set to the song “Greased Lightnin’,” and whenever the brothers needed to buy some time, one of their sisters would play the track and cue the diner’s staff to break out in a seemingly spontaneous dance for customers’ entertainment.

“We got it figured out, and that became our shtick,” Joe said.

But, just like those original TV appearances that caused the backlogs on the grill, the dance worked a little too well. As word got out, Joe said, fairgoers started requesting the dance — but having to perform the dance every couple minutes also started to snarl the diner’s operations.

So the Andruses decided “Greased Lightnin’” would play every hour, on the hour, a tradition that continues today.

“We have some things that will never change, like our dance, our reputation as a family-friendly, fun place,” Joe said. “We’re a family-run business. We want to keep that. So there’s some North Stars that continue to ground us, and then everything else is as creative as we can get.”

‘It’s a reward in life’

In 1998, the restaurant moved to its current spot on Carnes Avenue and became Andy’s Grille. The space originally had two kitchens; before they remodeled, the Philly flattop grill was where Andy’s Grille’s craft beer tap bar is now. Andy’s was one of the first Fairgrounds vendors to get in on creative beers, like 2016’s chocolate chip cookie beer, and boozy milkshakes, Michelle said.

For this year’s Fair, artist Danielle Flicek of Legacy Murals is painting a full wall scene depicting a variety of music legends from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s all hanging out at — where else? — Andy’s Grille. If you look closely, Bob and Pat Andrus, Mr. and Mrs. Andy, make a cameo appearance riding the SkyGlider.

Even after four decades, Bob is pleasantly amazed that people keep coming back year after year.

“I talk to people here who say, you’re the first place we come to every time we come to the Fair,” he said. “I love to hear that, (but) it surprised me when I first heard it. ‘You really mean that?’”

It’s meaningful, the Andrus family members said, to be part of people’s State Fair experiences — and also to have essentially a dedicated two-week family reunion.

“I think it’s a reward in life that we are very fortunate to still be able to sit and have a beer with our parents out here, as people come up and say hello,” Michelle said. “It’s a pretty unique thing.”