As we head into the NFL season, Chicago Bears fans (and fans of barbecue) can rejoice — Alary’s Bar in downtown St. Paul has found a culinary partner in Petey’s Texas Bar B Que.

Petey’s owner Mike Peterson has another tie-in to the famously cop-friendly bar: He is a former St. Paul Police officer and a law enforcement officer on the U.S. border in Laredo, Texas.

Peterson, who also spent 23 years working for McDonald’s, started learning about smoking meat while he lived down south, but it wasn’t until he returned to Minnesota that he really got hooked.

“Once I got it dialed in, people kept wanting more and more,” Peterson said.

That prompted friends to chip in to help him buy a trailer-sized smoker that he picked up in Nashville. Those friends were promised food at cost, and a business was born.

After a few years of unofficial catering for friends and family, another friend helped Peterson buy a food truck, and he’s been officially operating as a street food vendor — with a temporary residence at JR’s Bar in Burnsville (now closed).

When Peterson and his wife, Tina, who also worked at McDonald’s and helps run the business, saw that Alary’s was reopening and was looking for a culinary partner, they reached out to owner Bill Collins and a partnership was born.

The extensive menu includes fun apps like Texas Stogies (jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese, wrapped in bacon and grilled), smoked wings, smoked queso nachos and rib tips. Entrees range from pulled pork, hot links, brisket and smoked turkey to a full menu of burgers and sandwiches.

Though Peterson is a barbecue purist and believes his meat, lovingly smoked over oak logs, should stand on its own, he recognizes that Minnesotans love sauce, and he goes out of his way to accommodate them with 20 house-made barbecue sauces.

Peterson and Collins want to remind patrons that they have free parking in a lot and in the ramp next door. Food service hours will run 4-9 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. on weekends.

As a thank-you for their service, active and retired members of law enforcement get a 50% discount on food and beverage.

Collins, owner of Camp Bar on Robert Street, bought the previously shuttered Alary’s and reopened it this spring.

Alary’s Bar >> 139 E. Seventh St., St. Paul; alarys.com

Barrio in Lowertown has closed

Barrio, a restaurant and tequila bar that brought some badly needed life back to St. Paul’s Mears Park in 2009, called it quits on Friday in Lowertown.

A printed sign posted in the door says: “Barrio Lowertown has closed. Our last day was September 6th. … Come visit us in Minneapolis or Edina. … Thank you for 15 great years in St. Paul!”

The St. Paul location is no longer advertised on Barrio’s website, which lists three Barrio venues: Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis, 50th Street and France Avenue in Edina and Terminal 2 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The restaurant, which offered sidewalk seating facing Mears Park, maintained a sizable bar inside the historic Railroader Printer building at 229 E. Sixth St., which is also home to the Bulldog-Lowertown restaurant and bar.

Several restaurants situated around the park closed or relocated during the pandemic, including the short-lived Big Biscuit Bar, Public Kitchen & Bar, Noyes & Cutler, the Octo Fishbar and the Handsome Hog, which moved to the corner of Selby and Western avenues in 2020.

World of Beer on Sibley Street closed in 2019. Saint Dinette, located about a block off of Mears Park on Fifth Street, has announced it will likely close in March 2025.

— Frederick Melo

Tomlinson named best new chef

Karyn Tomlinson, chef/owner of St. Paul restaurant Myriel, has been selected as one of 13 Best New Chefs in the nation by Food & Wine magazine.

The annual award has been bestowed upon 389 chefs since 1988, including Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Stephanie Izard and Kwame Onwuachi. Locally, chef Jamie Malone was honored in 2013 and chef Jim Christiansen in 2015.

Tomlinson has been a semifinalist for the prestigious James Beard Award for Best Chef Midwest three times: In 2019, 2023 and 2024.

Tomlinson’s two-page spread in the October issue of the magazine, on newsstands Sept. 20, features her gorgeous food on the vintage plates used in the restaurant and some of her philosophy around cooking and partnering with local farmers.

Myriel >> 470 S. Cleveland Ave., St. Paul; 651-340-3568; myrielmn.com

— Jess Fleming