CLOQUET — About five years ago, Lee Harris began thinking about a career change.

“I started praying about it for a while. It took a while for me to get an answer about what I was supposed to do next, but I was supposed to learn how to smoke meat,” he said.

So, he and his wife, Julie, got a commercial smoker. They practiced and experimented smoking meat and after about a year and a half, reached a point where they felt it was good enough to sell.

In 2020, Lee and Julie Harris officially opened Holy Smokes food truck. Now, their operations are expanding with a brick and mortar restaurant called Holy Smokes BBQ, at 103 Avenue C, the old location of Common Ground Coffee Bar and Deli.

The restaurant will open on Nov. 1.

Kingdom Builders Ministries owned and operated Common Ground Coffee Bar and Deli. The Harrises have been a part of Kingdom Builders’ board since the its inception, and they said the ministry will still have a presence in the space.

“It’s hard to have a ministry and also run staff in a coffee shop — you’re always torn between are you doing ministry or are you doing a business?” said Julie Harris.

“(Common Ground’s) manager is due to have her first baby at the beginning of November … so, we were kinda looking at, do we get a new manager and continue what we were doing or is now the time to not have a coffee shop,” she added.

Ultimately, the board decided to give the Historic Chief Theatre a new life with Holy Smokes.

The Harrises intend to preserve Common Ground’s legacy of being a welcoming, faith-based hub for all denominations at Holy Smokes.

“A lot of the people that we’ve added to our staff are also on the board, so we kind of can let people know what the building and Kingdom Builders is about, and (staff) can also be paid through Holy Smokes,” Julie Harris said. “It just kind of was a perfect merge.”

“Everyone in the church should be about sharing the gospel … this is a space that people are comfortable with coming, and then … you get people who want to eat barbecue and they’re going to see this space and see that there’s people who care about them, love them, that there’s Bible studies that are happening — I think it’s an opportunity to share the gospel with people who normally wouldn’t hear it,” Lee Harris added.

Julie Harris said they are also excited to add another dining option in Cloquet, especially the West End. “We’re hoping that by anchoring a business here, maybe that will drive more businesses (in the West End),” she said.

She added that Holy Smokes is an alcohol-free facility.

“It makes it an option, though, for people who are teens to come in or young adults, and people who struggle with addiction to not have that (alcohol) be at the forefront of the places they go,” she said.

The Harrises are also hoping to take advantage of their large space to offer live music, open mics and “different artistic things” for the community.

Upon opening and as they work out any kinks that might come up, Holy Smokes will be focusing on serving lunch items.

“All of our meats are smoked with actual wood … so we have to cut the wood, trim the meat, then smoke it for 12 hours plus … so the issue with that is to keep up with the demand is a lot of work,” Lee Harris said. Eventually, they hope to offer dinner specials in the evenings.

Their primary menu options include brisket, smoked pork and smoked turkey. Lee Harris said their food truck menu offerings will be carried over to the physical location.

As of right now, Julie and Lee Harris are still planning on running the Holy Smokes food truck in the summers, but are debating what that would exactly look like.

“It doesn’t make much sense to have a spot two blocks away and have a spot here,” Julie Harris said.

Holy Smokes will be open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and Wednesdays and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; they will be closed on Sundays and Mondays.

Jess Waldbillig graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Superior with a Bachelor of Arts in writing and communication in May 2023 and started with the Pine Journal in June 2023. She previously worked with the University of Minnesota Extension in Youth Development with 4-H. When she isn’t working she enjoys reading, hiking, exploring the region, and curating Spotify playlists.