Scott Williams, swilliams@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Scott Williams Contractor Rod Clauss works Friday on remodeling inside the former ice cream shop and mini-mart at 5858 N. Lake Drive in the town of Wescott.
Leader Photo by Scott Williams Formerly known as Twisterz Market, the future meat and sausage shop is located north of Shawano Municipal Airport and across from Brothers’ Pub bar and grill.
Finding quality meats and sausages to throw on the backyard grill is about to get a whole lot easier in the Shawano area.
The longtime operator of Backes Food Mart in Birnamwood has purchased a vacant storefront to open a new meat market on the western shore of Shawano Lake.
Scheduled to open around Memorial Day, Backes Brat Haus & Meat Market will offer a variety of homemade bratwurst and other sausages, along with custom cuts of beef, pork and other grill-ables.
The retail outlet will operate at 5858 N. Lake Drive, a town of Wescott storefront that closed about three years ago as an ice cream shop and mini-mart known as Twisterz Market.
Birnamwood business owner Dan Backes said he looks forward to serving Shawano-area residents and tourists who are eager to find quality products for their summertime cookouts.
“You won’t be getting Johnsonville in this place — let’s put it that way,” Backes said.
The market brings renewed activity to a commercial corner on the lakeshore, and it also fills a void left with the 2014 closure of Pingel’s Old Time Sausage Shop near downtown Shawano.
Located north of Shawano Municipal Airport, the new retail outlet will be next door to the Spinning Wheel Inn supper club and across the street from the Brothers’ Pub bar and grill.
Spinning Wheel owner Steve Lemhouse said he was pleased to see new activity in the vacant storefront, and he suspects that a retail meat and sausage market will do well in the area.
“My customers are all talking about it,” Lemhouse said. “We’re all looking forward to it.”
Backes Food Mart is a Birnamwood grocery store started 40 years ago by Backes’ father, Bernard Backes. The store now is operated by Dan Backes and his wife, Chris, along with their children.
The store began making its own homemade sausages in the 1980s, and now features more than 25 varieties of fresh bratwurst.
When the Pingel’s shop closed its doors at 528 S. Main St. in Shawano, Backes said, he recognized the opportunity to expand.
“I was watching since then,” he said. “That is a niche that I think Shawano is ready to support.”
The location on Lake Street will make Backes Brat Haus & Meat Market conveniently located for lakefront property owners and vacationers, as well as others at nearby campgrounds, while still being easily accessible for those closer to downtown Shawano.
Backes purchased the property in March and hired a contractor to complete interior remodeling work on the building.
Construction contractor Rod Clauss said the eight- or nine-year-old building is in good shape and needs only minor remodeling before it will be ready. Clauss said he expects to be finished with the remodeling work well before Memorial Day weekend.
Many passersby have shown a curiosity about the storefront project, Clauss said.
“Everybody stops and says, ‘I hope he does well,’” Clauss said.
Backes said he intends to open for business seven days a week, at least initially, and then gauge the operating hours most convenient for customers.
The business owner said he has been encouraged by the positive response shown so far.
“We’re excited to be in the community,” he said. “We’re thinking it’s going to turn out very nice.”