Today we’d like to introduce you to Lee Harris.
Hi Lee, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Julie and I were in healthcare for 26 years and felt like we were ready to go in a new direction. Began to Pray and after about 1.5 years, we got the prompt to learn how to smoke meat. We had never done that but we went out and found a commercial smoker and started ruining some meat. Eventually, our friends began to tell us it was pretty good and we started getting calls to cater. With a little bit of confidence behind our belts, we decided that the best way to get our food to the masses was to invest in a food truck. This was spring of 2020. Covid hit and it took until November to get our trailer. You don’t go out in a food truck in northern Minnesota in November.
Summer of 2021 rolled around and we started connecting with businesses and our schedule began to fill up. We’ve been going strong for 5 years now. Our first brick and mortar started in 2023 and we recently moved into our own building in fall of 2025. We’re still a small business in our minds but all three phases; catering, food truck, and restaurant work well for us. We’ve grown from our family of 5 to 10 employees. Our current restaurant is at 1103 Avenue B, in Cloquet MN. We’re open Tuesday through Friday from 11-6:30pm.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We’ve never doubted that this is what we are supposed to be doing now. I think going from wantrepreneur to full fledged business owner always comes with hiccups. In fact, going from employee to owner is enough of a change!
You have to know your WHY! Keep coming back to Why did I do this in the first place? That should keep you from straying to far off your course.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Our specialty is Smoked Meat. We have an artisan approach in that we use old school methods. Our smokers are 100% oak firewood. We don’t use electric, propane, or pellet style smokers. This method sets us apart because no one in our area is doing it this way. There’s no comparison to the taste of a great piece of meat slowly smoking for several hours. Our greatest compliment is when someone from Texas tries our brisket and raves. That’s what the long hours are for!
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Lessons learned? Our Faith is what guides us and keeps us going. We Pray for wisdom a lot. If an opportunity arises, we ask for Wisdom and if the door closes before we had confirmation, it wasn’t meant to be.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://HolySmokesmn.com
- Facebook: Holy Smokes Catering
