Keshena’s Primal Eats showcases Menominee County flavors at Iola Car Show

Primal Eats used the Iola Car Show to put Keshena and Menominee County flavors in front of a crowd that can top 100,000 people. In the booth, Aloysius Waub of Keshena was preparing large pieces of fried bread, a scene that tied the business back to the people and places that built it.

A Menominee County business on a much bigger stage

The vendor spot ran during the car show’s July 9-11 stretch and brought Primal Eats into a setting with far more traffic than any single local storefront could generate. The business joined the Wittenberg Lions Club in serving visitors, giving a county-rooted operation a direct line to out-of-area customers who came for the cars but found a local food story too.

That scale matters for a business based on County Road VV between Gillett and Keshena. A booth at an event that large can do more than move plates for a weekend, it can introduce a name, a menu and a home county to people who may later look for the restaurant, order catering or buy the products elsewhere.

What Primal Eats put on the menu

The draw at the booth was not generic fair food. Owner David Kiedrowski said the event helps the company market itself beyond Menominee County, especially through brisket snack sticks, pulled pork and a fried bread pulled-pork sandwich on a pretzel bun.

Those choices fit the setting. Snack sticks are easy to sell in a fast-moving crowd, pulled pork travels well in a busy booth, and fried bread gives the menu a clear local identity that stands out in a field filled with standard festival fare. The combination let Primal Eats show both range and roots, from smoked meat to a dish that reflected the people making it.

The presence of Waub in the booth reinforced that local connection. A customer walking past could see the food being made, hear the Keshena connection and understand that this was not a pop-up from somewhere far away, but a business carrying Menominee County flavor into a regional event.

From a May 2021 opening to wider distribution

Primal Eats opened in May 2021, and this year’s car show appearance was likely its third or fourth at the event. In just a few years, the business has moved from a newer local operation to one with a much wider footprint, while still using the same county road corridor as its home base.

Kiedrowski said the company now sells snack sticks in more than 2,000 grocery stores and convenience stores across the country. That reach shows how a small Menominee-area business can expand into a broader manufacturing and retail operation without losing the local identity that helps define it.

The company’s growth has also continued close to home. Primal Eats recently opened an AI-controlled grab-and-go store on County Road R north of Cecil, adding another layer to a business that now spans restaurant service, catering, packaged products and automated retail. Each part of that operation gives Menominee County a larger presence in the regional food economy.

Why the outside attention matters back home

For Menominee County, the value of a high-profile event is not just the weekend sales. Exposure at the Iola Car Show can turn into repeat customers, catering interest and wider recognition for a business that already carries the county’s name and character into surrounding communities.

That matters in a place where small businesses often have to work harder to be seen beyond their immediate towns. When Primal Eats serves a crowd that size, it is not only selling brisket snack sticks or fried bread pulled-pork sandwiches, it is also showing what a Keshena-connected business can look like when it scales up without severing its local ties.

The result is a stronger platform for the restaurant at home and a stronger case for county-rooted entrepreneurship. In a region where identity, food and small business often overlap, a booth at the Iola Car Show becomes more than a stop for hungry spectators. It becomes a public window into the way Menominee County businesses can grow while still sounding, and tasting, like home.