Join us for a candid conversation with Russ and Bruce Boes, the charismatic owners of Reds in Breda. In this episode, we dive into their childhood experiences on a family farm, their unexpected venture into owning a bar, and the unique ties that keep them rooted in Breda. From their humble beginnings in the 70s to navigating the bar scene without any prior business experience, hear how their determination and community spirit have turned Reds into a cherished local institution.
Welcome to the world of podcasting. Oh boy. I am shocked you guys agreed to do this. Honestly. One of them did. No problem.
One of them did.
Well, you know, that's all we needed was one domino to fall. And then we got the other one. So, because you're not going to let him just do it on his own, right? Right. Talk bad about him. Oh, true story. True story. So this may be the wildest podcast I've done. This is Must Know People, by the way. I'm John Ryan, along with my wife, Dena, joining the podcast today. Hello. Two guests that probably... No way more freaking people than any of the other podcast guests I've ever had. I think so. At least in this area. They know the good. They know the bad. The ugly. Yes, sometimes that. So it is Russ and Bruce Boes, the owners of Reds in Breda. I mean, who doesn't have a Reds story? Oh, I do. Oh, we got plenty of them. So we'll probably tell them a little bit later on. But guys, thanks for doing this. I appreciate it. Yep. No problem. um where do you even i usually end start like at the very beginning you guys grew up in brita correct yeah all right so talk about about growing up bruce i mean red and maggie we know your parents as 80 year olds so talk about i was gonna say they're 90 now yeah when we first met them they were like yeah when we first met them they were in their 80s yeah so talk about growing up in brita and what was what was it like
Uh, well, like out on the farm, you mean? Yeah. Okay. So obviously we grew up on a farm.
So what years are we talking about? What decades?
Oh, like from seventies, eighties. Well, ever since we're little kids, we, we, that's where we grew up.
Have they lived the same place the whole time?
Right.
Well, we, yeah, more or less. Yeah. So you guys pretty much grew up together. I mean, how many years apart are you guys? Seven. Seven years apart. Okay. So the little, little age difference going on there.
And you have how many siblings?
There's four of us.
Dan, me, Russ, and Linda. Linda's in between us.
I'm the youngest. Oh, did they be the family? The troublemaker of the family, I should say.
Oh, no. The best for last.
So talk about, I mean, growing up for you. I mean, what was it like growing up in Breda? I mean, was there something about that that made you want to stay in that area? We were stuck there.
I mean, mom and dad were there, so we had work on the farm.
I totally get that. What kind of work did you guys do on the farm?
Oh, we had lots of cattle, lots of hogs. We farmed quite a bit.
So you were up early in the morning?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's why you still get up at six o'clock every morning because dad's yelling, get out of bed.
I feel like that's a common theme around here. Yeah.
Yeah. Everybody had their chores to do, I assume. Oh, yeah. Probably still do. Yeah.
Yeah, we still do. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. So what is about Brita that made you guys want to stay around that area?
I don't know. It just happened, I guess.
Really? It wasn't a plan or anything like that?
No, it was no plan. Bruce? No, not really. Well, I just always helped dad farm all the time. So, I mean, I wasn't obviously going anywhere. So...
So you didn't want to go off to college or things like that. You just want to stay and farm. Yep.
I was going to say, we have, we have kids and they definitely know whether or not they want to be here or not. They're yeah. We're not meant for this small town or totally meant for this small town.
So it's funny because they said they don't want to be here, but then later on they're like, well, I kind of want to be around the area.
I had no idea what I was going to do until I went to college.
And see, you went to school, right? And so this kind of gets us into the whole part where you come back, you buy the bar.
Well, I came home on the weekend. Yeah.
Yeah. So where did you go to school?
Fremont, Nebraska, Midland Lutheran College.
Yeah. What were you doing there? What were you studying?
just a general yeah i was i didn't really have a major yeah what were you doing figuring it out at that time yeah i was farming until we bought the you know about the bar well still helped dad but yeah so you're a full-time farmer yep would you have stayed with that life and been just fine with it yep yeah what was it about farming that you loved I don't know everything. I mean, that's what I grew up with. So I mean, doing the cattle and the hogs and farming, all that stuff. That's, that's just what I did. Okay.
And so, so Rossi went off to school and what made you decide you needed a change?
Well, I didn't.
An opportunity.
I just came home for the weekend and they called mom and dad, just said, come and look at this bar.
And who's they?
The estate of the bar.
Oh, okay.
It was like Red's cousins or whatever, because he never had any kids. So it was like his.
So explain who Red is, because I always thought that Red was your dad.
So did everybody.
And they still do, don't they?
He is. He is. Coincidence only. Yeah. Yeah.
So the people that owned it before.
Yeah, he was Red Brinker. Okay. Well, Albin Brinker. His nickname was Red. So he bought the place. I heard he literally lived in the bar. He did. Yep, yep, down the basement. And then once he got older, he moved upstairs in our back room.
Built that back room. And everybody remembers that back room because it was like part of the bar there. Everybody remembers the back room.
Wow, that sounds sinister.
I'm pleading the fifth.
Say no more about the back room because everybody will know.
So how long did he have the bar?
He bought the place. Well, it was a Brinker Cafe, his dad's before that. And then he got it in 1955. 1955, yeah. And so he had it till 87, so 32 years he had it.
Man, so it was even Red's before that, but it was a cafe.
Right, right. Okay. So his dad, it was Breaker's Cafe. And then when Red took over after his mom died or something like that, then he took over and then he called it just Red's Place, whatever.
I say we have a little drinking game and every time we say Red's,
Oh, boy.
Do you want to slurn at them?
We have a drink.
This could be fun, guys. I'm down. I'm down. Let's do that. So it was a Red Brinker owns the bar. He owns it for 30 some odd years. He had to be pretty old. And he said he bought it from the estate, right? So he passed away.
Right, it was about in February when he died, and he was 77 when he died.
So what was you guys' affiliation with the bar? Were you familiar with it? Did you go in there a lot? I mean, was there anything?
I mean, I went in there, but he wasn't old enough to go in there. No, I was never in there. Never knew Red at all. I think I'd seen him once before. So his, I don't know, what was Iver Fee? They were like... it was like a cousin to him or whatever to red, you know, some relation to red. I can't exactly remember what it was, but we were, they were friends of dad, you know, mom and dad. And they came out one day and was like, you guys need to buy the bar after red died. You know, it's like, you need to buy the bar. I'm like, Oh, Why?
Why us? They wanted your mom and dad to buy it or you guys to buy it?
They wanted us to buy it. They wanted mom and dad to buy it. That's why mom and dad was going in to check it out. I came home on the weekend so we just tagged along. Wow.
And at this point, you're what? I'm 19. 19 and 26. So were you both in on this? Like going, let's do this.
Well, not at first. We're looking at the place and it's like, mom and dad are like, we're too old to own a bar. So I'm just looking around and it's like, I don't know what I'm doing in college. You know, I'm just taking basics or whatever. So I said, maybe we should do it.
bruce yeah yeah you just let okay yeah you guys both yeah i was like all right whatever let's give it a shot yeah was it kind of a landmark and breed at that point or was i mean it was just another place so so the thing about reds was he just like if it was a saturday night and it was busy and you know in town like they used to have a lot of weddings in town he'd close up like seven o'clock because he didn't want to deal with the people no there was like five bars in town back in the day
What? In Brita? In Brita, yeah.
So you literally are jumping in the middle of probably the worst business to be in. You've got five other bars competing with you.
There wasn't five at the time. They closed down.
Oh, gotcha. Right before that, there was five. Okay, okay, okay. I thought you meant there was five at the time.
No, no, no.
Wow, bad business. It was. Yeah. We're going to have to work our butts off. Yeah.
Okay. You guys decide to go into a business, which you literally have no idea about.
Yep. Yep. I had never bartended.
I was going to say ever, ever made a drink because you weren't of age.
Well, only my own. Well, actually when I was 19, I was old enough to drink because the drinking age was 19. I just made it just by weeks. They changed it. And once they take you, once you're old enough, they can't take it away from you.
So what's the thinking at this point? You're thinking you're going to, you got a gold mine on your hands?
No, no, no, never.
I just thought, well, so all this stuff about business plans and accounting and also you're just like, well, let's just buy it. Yeah. I mean, that's what kind of sounds like.
And I finished it. I said, I'll finish out the rest of the year in college and come home on the weekends and work. And that's what we did. Yeah.
All right, so your first day at the bar. How'd that go? Scared. Yeah, I'll bet.
I have no idea how to make a drink.
Oh, yeah.
No idea.
You got people coming in and you're going, okay.
How to do it.
Yeah.
What to charge, you know, just went off his old prices. Yeah.
Someone say you still don't. about what to charge so that's an inside joke right there so what about you bruce i mean you're like no bartendering experience we were farming well i've bartended like at the legion you know for like weddings and stuff but oh so you had a siri you had a little sample yeah a little sample of it but i never give that a thought about full-time jobby you know that way but
So, so along the way, I mean, you started this and then you're like, okay, I'm going to have to figure out how to, well, you know, I got to buy supplies.
I, yeah.
How do we do the books?
You know, as a business person, I, I can't even imagine how, yeah. Weren't you just terrified a little bit?
no actually i wasn't i went back to college and told all my buddies hey i just bought a bar they're like yeah right yeah right and so they didn't believe me so i started taking a few of home every weekend with me you know and they're like you did buy a bar
How was it received in Brita? Did you make any changes to the bar? Cause it didn't sound like it was a real reliable place.
Yeah. We made a lot of changes. Yeah. Actually stayed open. Yeah. Yeah. We were there. They don't pass seven.
90% of it's showing up. Right.
Yeah. Just being there.
So how soon before you guys realize that this is going to be something that that's lasting, right? I don't know if we did. Just a few years ago? We just went day by day. Just a few years ago? Just a couple years ago, yeah. Like, shit, we're still here. Day by day. About your 35th anniversary, you figured out it's going to work out?
Yeah.
So you said day by day.
Explain that. Or weekend by weekend, you know, just... Did every day, but you know, I suppose I never thought about the future. Never.
You know, when you were young, I mean, starting a business, what about the books and things like that? Did you guys know you were making money at all?
Well, we had some people that we knew that was like, can you help us with the books here? Because we don't know nothing. I mean, really. So they helped us out with that, and that was awesome.
That had to be hard to be up in the morning doing cattle chores, and then you're late at night at the bar. Oh, yeah. How many decades did you go without sleep?
All of them.
That's why it works good for two of us, you know.
All right.
You know.
Yeah.
Yeah. We got a break, you know.
One would open, one would close. Yeah. And we did that a lot. Yeah. You know, when he got done with school, I would open, or he would open, I would close, or I would open, he would close. We just flipped it around. It seemed to work pretty good.
Well, you guys still do that.
yeah to this day yeah yeah how many years did it take for you guys to feel really comfortable like this and this is 10 years i mean i think before it really felt comfy yeah maybe it wasn't that long have you always had been lucky to have people i know you've had a lot of good help that you've hired and they've been well it's friends you know the people breed alone i mean they just
make you feel at ease.
Yeah.
You know, really. And you've had your locals, your locals, reliable help.
Yeah.
Yeah. And people were just, they're ready to help us. They wanted to go.
So, so what were some of the changes you guys made kind of looking back at, you know, once, once you took it over about a few years in, I'm sure you're going, well, this doesn't work for me or something, you know, any, what are some of the changes you guys made to the bar?
Boy, that makes you think, don't it? Yeah, it does. I mean, just little things, I think it is.
Just like the flow of the bar? Well, if you want to look at it that way, it's like Red never had anything in the bar. I mean, he had like three tables. So we had to bring whatever we thought we could put in there. So he had the back room. If anybody remembers the back room, there was absolutely nothing back there. So, you know, here we brought pool table and foosball table, whatever, you know, just something for people to do that way. So I guess that's a change if you're that way.
And, yeah, I mean, food. You've got snacks.
Yep, yep, yep. We've got appetizers and pizzas. We had the lottery. We got the lottery in right away, too. Yeah, they come in right away. Yep, because that was right when it came out, the lottery did.
What do you think puts you guys on the map? Because there's a lot of people that drive to Brita to come to Reds. What do you guys think it is?
I think I know.
Our charming personalities. I think you nailed it right there. It's you guys. I honestly think it is. No, cheap prices, probably inexpensive prices. It's the back bar. They all come to see the back bar. It's a homey feeling.
There you go. There you go. You know, every time we walked in there, we just feel comfortable. You feel welcome.
We talk to you. We'll talk to you.
We feel welcome. And I mean, that leads me to what, how many life events? have been at that bar. I mean, we've been involved in several, in our friend's wedding, reception. I had my birthday, big birthday there. How many life events?
Yeah, there's a lot of them. I couldn't even count how many people.
I know.
Yeah. met there, got married, come back and funerals there.
Have you?
Oh yeah.
Oh my gosh.
Do you Irish wakes have been there and all of that. So that's gotta make you feel good though. When people associate your bar that you bought at the age of 19 and 26 and, and go, man, that's, that's the place I will always remember.
I mean, we've been around for your parents' anniversary parties and birthdays and a recent wedding of a friend of ours. Yes. Yeah.
I mentioned that Stacy and Natalie got married and that the first place they went to, you were the backup plan too, by the way, they couldn't get married on the bike trail. It was that. So,
Yeah.
Uh, yeah. I mean, talk about that because I mean, you've, you've had friends that have been there for decades.
I mean, yeah, that seems weird, but it is true, you know? And the funny part is you're seeing your friends as kids grow up and they're old enough to drink. And now it's like their kids are starting to grow up. It's like, Oh, you're right.
i know i'll never forget bringing my kids in as adults i think i threw some water in their face you know one time audrey yeah yeah oh hell you've done that to me was that a shark shot i i fell that and i fell for that in my 40s that should tell you something right there
Yeah. When you went to, when you walk in, I mean, you literally know almost everybody walking through the door.
Pretty much. I can get a drink of what they serve.
You do.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's about, yeah. It was a lot more than I do actually.
That's why I feel like the whole bar is just iconic and you guys didn't plan it that way. Apparently. No, no, no. It just, it just sort of happened that way. So yeah. but there's something special about the place that just everybody loves. And that's why I didn't remind me what year this was. The fire fire was 2013, 2013. Okay. So the station, the radio station was just getting our website going and our online news and things like that. And I, I hate to put this on your guys' back, but you guys put us on the map and, As far as our website and mobile app, because when the fire happened, we said, you know, we put out, oh, there's a bulletin, there's a fire in downtown Breda. And then it was, there's a fire at Red's. And that's when our likes and shares just absolutely exploded. Wow, that's crazy. Because everybody... was stunned and shocked and wanted to share the information with everybody and going, oh my God, this bar you've grown up with that you've done all these things at, it's burning. I do want to take you back to that day and tell me when the first time you heard about it was on fire and where were you, Bruce? Let's start with you.
I was ready to go to work. Working at Pepsi then? Yeah, at Pepsi. And my neighbor, or not my neighbor, but the neighbor behind the bar, the guy right behind the bar, come beating on the door. And I was dressed, thank God. And he's like, hey, the bar's burning. I'm like, no, it's not. So this is like first thing in the morning. It's 5.30. 5.30 in the morning. Yeah. And I said, no, it's not. We just left there because me and Russ were there. And we had a catering job or something that night before. We did something. I don't know. We were even down in the basement. Yeah. And we did not smell smoke. We had Jacobson or something that day. We did not smell smoke or nothing. Nothing. Yeah. Down in the basement. So I, of course, ran up there and sure shit. Here it's rolling out of that back vent back there. And I'm like, you ought to be kidding me. You know? kicked the door down or well the firemen were there by that time they were chopping and i'm like i got a key you know opened up the doormat oh my god can't believe this you know you can absolutely see nothing in there yeah and you were gone just smoke that you saw or oh a little fire and smoke yeah it was just packed full of smoke and then relit itself once oxygen got back in there yeah
So what was the start of the fire? Was it determined? Yeah, it was.
Right in between the bar and the kitchen there was electrical wire where that whole floor burned out. They've seen where somehow it started. We really don't know how it got started either. Nor do they.
So where were you? You said you guys were at the bar that night. So how did you find out?
So I got out of there pretty early the night before. It was about midnight. And so I had to take a friend to the uh, airport in Omaha about, I think we left at one or two o'clock in the morning. So he had to fly out early and I'm in the Omaha airport. And all of a sudden I get a phone call from Bruce and he's like, where are you? He, it was my number. Uh, my home number he's at my house looking for me because apparently they they couldn't find me at home and they thought maybe i was even in the bar you know when it burned you know but yeah he calls me from my home phone and says where are you now i was like i'm on my way back from the airport and he's like oh the bar is burning and so i'm like what yeah whatever yeah yeah
And literally it's been 12, 13 years and I'm still like living with you guys in this story. It's like, Oh my God, tell me what.
I just flew back. And all I hear is you on the radio saying, yeah, there's flames coming out the window.
Oh my gosh.
Trucks there. And I'm like, Oh, I was flying. I thought, well, if I get pulled over, they'll know why, you know, I was going around vehicles. Didn't take me too long to get home.
So what, I mean, the results of it, how long was it before you knew it was kind of a total loss? Oh, shortly. Yeah. Shortly after I got it out. Cause we, we were like, Oh, it's, you know, it's smoke. And it was like, well, everybody's kind of hoping for the best or whatever.
And it was like, that's what happens. You start out and you're hoping for the best always. And it gets worse and worse.
And they wouldn't even let me.
Yeah.
I wanted to go in and check it out. And they were like, no. they wouldn't let me in and it was hot, really hot. They had the fans sucking it out and it was really warm in there.
So what'd you guys do for the rest of that day?
Sat there and cried.
I know.
Yeah. Yeah.
I feel that.
My kids were balling.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
I mean, they grew up there, so they were balling.
It's devastating. Like everything you worked for is gone.
It's gone. It's gone. And our worst fear was like, at that time we couldn't see like right away, of course, we couldn't see how bad like the back bar and all that. Cause you know, that's what to me though, when everybody comes to see, because it's pretty cool. Yeah. So yeah, it was just, that was tough.
But I know like the fireman, they said, don't hit the back bar with the water, you know, but really even they knew. Oh yeah. Oh wow. They even said that the other day and they said, I just didn't hit the back bar, you know? But somehow I didn't start on fire. Yeah. I think all the years of the Camels, Winstons, Marlboros, I think that preserved it. I really do. It was used to the smoke. It blistered a little bit with the heat, but it did not start. I couldn't believe it.
How long was it before you guys could get back in the building?
oh a couple days no we got into that after that later on that day we went in there okay once they got the fire under control whatever then they i'm like i'm going in i don't give a shit what you guys say and i was going fireman of course i was a fireman at that time so i'm like i'm going in yeah so yeah it was devastating i guess the word is
At that point, you're just like, let's take some time and figure this out?
Or was there... I remember walking through the water, slosh, slosh, slosh, you know, in the back room and then looking up in front. It's like, oh, wow, everything's black. Yeah. Black, everything. Just really black.
What do you do at that point?
We didn't know what to do. No. I mean, every sign was gone. Melted. They're melted. The TVs were gone. I mean, they're melted. And it's like, how hot do you think it really got in here? And the firemen, they figured 1,400 or something. It melted every goddang sign in there.
It melted them. Well, you had booths and things like that that were in there. But the back bar... So talk about that. I mean, the, the, the firemen were aware of it. They had to, they didn't want to ruin that or things like that. But how long did it take before you guys decided you wanted to rebuild?
It took us a little bit. Yeah.
I bet.
Yeah. Yeah. It was probably months. Yeah. Months. But you know, you gotta wait for the dumb insurance.
Oh yeah. Let's yeah. Talk about that.
After that, we're like still scratching our head. It was like, you know, places are fricking disaster. I agree. You know?
Yeah.
So what do you do?
We didn't know what to do. We're a little packer at stew. I mean, we had ton of stuff back there, you know, in there. So it's like, where do we start? First of all, I think first I started drilling holes in the floor, back room floor, just to save the floor, baby.
well we did that right away yeah because we that was the first thing we did yeah so why did you do that because there's water in the on the you know from the from the fire so there's about yay much water in the back room so like to the rest of them like we need to get this water out because that that floor was pretty dang nice yeah so we poked a hole in there and no the first thing i did was went downstairs down the basement to see if i was going to hit anything electric good call good call everything was shut off anyway we're burnt i mean it's like i remember that so good after that we we drilled that hole and let the water drain i think we came in back the next day and scoop shovel and broom and pushed all this stuff up into the front room and then we clean that floor up like we do every day of the week and that's why it looks like it does yet today because we saved that from warping.
But you didn't know at that point that you were going to rebuild.
No, no. I had no idea, but we didn't want to ruin that floor.
So you just did what you knew how to do. You just got to work and did your chores. Yep, basically. How long did it take for you guys to wrap your head around everything and say... Yeah, you know what? This is worth continuing, because, I mean, you could have taken insurance money and packed up and gone home.
Actually, we just started cleaning up, because I knew we had to start cleaning it sometime. So we were just starting cleaning it up, and I don't think we really decided until later.
Yeah, yeah. Well, when everybody came in and helped us, I mean, that was... Yeah. That was, like, really heartfelt, I guess you want to call it, because that was a tough day.
We had more than... More help than we needed, you know? So we told some to go home, you know, cause it was getting to be too much help and everybody was just volunteering and wanting to help and get us going again. Doesn't that tell you something though? It did.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you, you guys made an impact on their lives. They wanted to help you guys out. Yeah.
So on a lighter note, um, we haven't said reds for how long and, um, I may need to get a drink. You did.
So when Reds came back to life.
Thank you. Thank you. No, what's crazy is that almost immediately came out, Chad McDermott's same song came out right there about Reds. And we got requests at the radio station to play it.
Oh my gosh.
Because of the bar and stuff. And everybody was just heartbroken about it. So that had to... I mean, did you guys even know that was going on? No. He didn't tell us. He just all of a sudden put it out there. It was to the Cheers theme song.
Yeah. Well, we had a beach party every year. And so that weekend that it burned, we had the... beach party down at the shelter house. And so we had a big party down there. Oh, so you had a one, even though there was no bar. Right, right, right. So we had it down there and then Chad McDermott's band played down there. And then we, I think we salvaged a couple of t-shirts or something or something and we washed them up and we sold them and tried to make money to rebuild, you know? And we had a big turnout for that down there.
That's when he put that song out. Yeah. That's when the song, we have no idea. So what the heck is he made us go up front when he, when he first sang it to us and everybody else were like, Oh shit. Yeah. Yeah. I'd be saying, Oh shit.
They made a hammer, you know, out of cardboard and everything. And you know, it was really, yeah.
And you guys love to be the center of tension. So I'm sure.
Yeah. Yeah. Right. That's it. Yeah.
So how long did it, well, first of all, fill the duck.
I was thinking the same thing. I'm going to ask about fill the duck.
Still up on the wall. Yeah. So, but the back bar too. How long did it take to get that back? Oh boy. Restored.
You guys did it all yourself? We soda blasted. We had a guy who soda blasted.
The whole building.
Yeah.
Everything. The walls. Everything.
Rafters. Everything. and then had him sort of blast the back bar, and then we took it down.
We took it down. We took it bar. Yeah, we had all the... So the north bar, that one burned completely up pretty much, you know? So we took the other one out, and then there was this wide open space, and that's when he came in and blasted everything. Then we took the bar... down the back bar down we took it completely down had no dang clue how to get it out of there take it down that was because the mirrors were broke already you know with the fire everything busted the yeah they got so hot it busted all the mirrors in there that back bar is huge yeah yeah and heavy and get it out the door i got it was heavy yeah well we took it down to pieces so that was interesting because i had no idea how to take it down because i mean it has it's been there over 100 years in that same spot because it got brought in there in 1913 they tell us so um so we just like well you got the saws on cut the screws off and we start taking it down piece by piece that's all we could do
And just trusting you know how to put it back together.
Correct. Set it down on the floor and then he was still soda blasting at the time and he'd come back and blasted it.
Once you realized that could be salvaged, was that the turning point going, hey, we can rebuild this?
I think we're already there when we did that. Yeah. Yeah.
Was there any turning point that said, yeah, let's do this. Let's rebuild.
No, no, not really. I don't, we just started cleaning. Yeah. Once we started cleaning up and I think we do both just realize, and maybe, you know, maybe we can get this fixed up again.
You guys took a, you guys did all the work yourselves. I mean, you didn't go out and hire somebody else to do it or things like that. That would have been the easy thing to do, but.
We had great help helping us all the time. Yeah. We had people come in and helped us. Yeah. We had certain nights that them guys would come in and they'd like, Hey, we're going to designate. I think it was Thursday night. Yeah. Thursday night.
There's like a group of four or five guys that would come in and help us for like three hours. Wow. Yep. And so they were there every, every, every, every week, every week. So we got a lot of stuff done.
Yeah. I remember your dad telling me, he goes, they'd have just hired it out. They could have had it done. Oh my God.
That's all we heard from everybody. Yeah. Just fix the damn thing up. You know? Yeah. We are, but yeah, we didn't get him insurance money. So we're like kind of squeaky tight about that because like we didn't get nothing.
Well, yeah, it was 19 when we got this insurance and I just got bare minimum insurance and just renewed it every year. And, Never thought of it.
19.
Yeah. When you sign a contract and you hadn't kind of revisited that since. Yeah. No. Wow. So the back bar gets restored and Phil the duck survives. Yeah.
Well, I tried to throw Phil the duck away, but it didn't happen. Yeah. Yeah, the fire inspector.
Bill the Duck couldn't go away.
He can tell the story. The fire inspector yelled at me when I threw it away. And I'm like, what did I do wrong? Really?
That fire inspector yelled at you?
Yeah. He helped us clean up. Yeah, he helped us clean up. So I pulled it out of the dumpster and gave it to him. I said, here, this is yours then. And so he took it to a couple taxidermists. tried to get it fixed, and they said, you can't fix burnt feathers. So he had it bring it to a body shop, had it clear-coated about 100 times, he said, and then he brought it back. When we opened.
Yeah, yeah, when we opened, yeah, he brought it back. And we had to hang it back in the same spot it was. Yep, yep.
I have newfound respect for Bill the Duck.
I shot that duck.
I shot that duck out of the farm, you know, many years ago and I had it done, you know, and I thought, well, we'll bring it in. What the heck?
So, yeah. So you, you were the one who originally killed it. So you just saved it later on. It's come full circle. That is crazy. Any other, any other things that got saved that were like that? The cash register behind the bar.
No, that ain't the original one, no.
Isn't it? I thought it was. Where'd that one come from? Well, so the one from the fire that Budweiser signed on top melted right down on the old one. So, you know, trying to put that fire out because that was actually on fire. So they had to squirt the water on it because it was on fire. So once they did that, it just gummed up that other cash register to no end. I mean, there's no saving it.
Yeah, gotcha.
I mean, it looked good, but it didn't, it, there's no way it's functional. So, so, uh, actually, so where we come across the other one is this crazy story too. Kids and I were in Montana, Colorado, um, vacationing. And, uh, we walked into this place and at the end of the bar here, this cash register sat, you know? And so I said, Hey, I said, that was almost just exactly like our old one, which is all that, you know? And the guy's like, No, we're trying to sell the place. We're going to put it back on the bar, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, well, here's my number. Give me your number. And I don't know, months went by, I think, after that. And finally, he just like...
Oh, you came back. And I said, you asked me about it. And I said, go back there and get it. You went back there and got it. We wouldn't sell the damn thing, you know.
Get back in your truck, drive $12 back there.
We're going to need that.
Yeah. So it was kind of like that whole deal. And then finally, a couple months later after, you know, we've seen it, He called and he's like, hey, I'll sell that cashier's too. You still want it or whatever? And I'm like, yeah. He's like, so Abby and I, my daughter, we drove out there. We went and picked the dang thing up. There it is. Awesome.
Yeah, it's pretty wild. That is. And you guys, it took about a year, did it, to rebuild the bar? Exactly a year. Exactly a year? Yeah.
I know a lot of people were really excited to get back into Reds. That's all I heard. We all talked about it.
When is it going to be finished? We had some weddings that were supposed to be in there, and they just kind of sat out front or inside. Took pictures. Yeah, took pictures and stuff like that. Yeah.
Yeah.
That, that, that was such an epic, epic relaunch of the bar that it's, it's just crazy that, that how it all came together. You guys, and you guys made improvements that you wanted to make. I'm sure.
I remember when, after it burned, we had everything, you know, all, all paneled up and everything and locked up. There was beer cans out in front on the stuff. I think I remember that.
Yeah.
It was just like, you know, it was wild, you know. I think a bunch of people sat over that next night. People sat there and just drank. Yeah.
I do remember that.
Yeah.
How long did people contact you about that fire? Oh, boy. It had to be like the whole year until you reopened. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I don't even. It's like, oh, my God, I just heard. Yeah.
It was kind of nice. So the Legion opened up for, you know, during that when the fire happened, they opened up every night. And so they kind of hired our help and hired me. And, you know, we went down there and worked that night, too. So it was kind of nice of them.
Kind of like a breed of folks hanging together.
Yeah. So our regulars could still see us, you know?
Yeah. So, I mean, it's, but it's more than just breed of folks that go to red. Oh yeah. I mean, you guys are a destination point. Yeah. How do you describe that?
Oh, I have an actual question. What is the weirdest thing that's happened at Red's? Oh, my. What is the funniest or weirdest thing? Yes, we always say everybody has a Red's story. Yes.
Probably when I first opened the bar and had some older lady get up and start dancing and ended up taking her shirt off. And here I am the first couple of weeks of bartending.
At your 19?
Yeah.
And you're like, what do I do?
What do I do? Oh my God.
Lady, can you get off the bar, please?
I didn't know what to do. I had no idea. And I wasn't there that night.
So if you were to say, what's the wildest night you've had there?
the wild i think john asked you about earlier about um you guys have hosted bike the rag rye one where they decided to naked beer slides make their own little slide and didn't tell nobody about it and just did it yeah yeah well we were selling gallons of beer you know tap beer and all of a sudden they start buying this i'm like wow that was a great idea that we got these gallon jugs selling gallons of beer you know for these guys They were just going left and right. Well, then you look and they start pouring them out on the floor. And I'm like, what are they doing?
They all just put their hand in the air and all of a sudden, glug, glug, glug, glug. Mike, what are they doing? Oh my gosh.
All of a sudden you've seen somebody slide by. Well, that's what they're doing.
Did you make a lot of money that night?
I don't even remember. The place was packed. I remember where the booths were. It was just like a balcony. People were standing all the way up to the ceiling. It was crazy. That was wild.
And we could not control it. No.
Oh, I'll bet. No. But everybody kind of behaved themselves. Oh, they all did. Oh, yeah.
There was no problem. Yeah.
Yeah, because we talked earlier, and we were sitting out, you know, having a cocktail before this podcast, and we're like, yeah, you guys don't have a lot of issues with, like, fights and things like that. Never really have.
No, no, no. The funniest part about that, I think, is that beer slide thing is... you know that had a whole thing with the cops they were all like naked beer slide was bad bad bad so they which it is you know but so the cops came in after it was all over with because they couldn't get past the front door basically like a foot and they're like we heard there's a beer slide here and we're like there's no beer slide you can see there's nothing going on here i don't see one do you see one and they're like okay we're just checking i'm like
They even went down Zeke's and tried to see if there was one down there. Yeah.
Oh my God. Yeah. So yeah, all the, all the bike bashes and things like that. So that's a rag bride seems to be the King of the crazy, crazy.
I think we put Brita on the map.
Oh, I bet you did.
That one did.
I doubt that at all. But yeah, we've seen that place packed wall to wall. Oh, yeah. How do you even work a room like that?
I bet you get used to it. You do.
I mean, you guys have been doing it for so long. They just come in, you know. I mean, not all at once. You're waiting on them and... Not thinking nothing about it.
Doing the best you can. Yep. Well, then you, you can't get out from behind the bar and they're pretty, they're really good about that thing. Come up to the bar, you know, cause they know we can't get out. So pretty much we can't get out. So they come up and serve them, you know, they'll come up instead of us waiting on them. They'll come up. It works out really well.
So what's your favorite memory in the time that you've had? I'm going to ask each of you. I mean, it's only 38 years. Come on. Yeah, it is.
You got to know this right off the top of your head. It was probably Reg Bra, you know.
Okay.
It was the best.
Yeah.
It was a good time. Yeah. And then they had a reunion ride, you know, after that when Reg Bra went through breed again. And, well, Team Plunger, they stole our plungers at the original Reg Bra, or first Reg Bra. Out of the bathroom. Of course they did. Out of the bathroom. They weren't even ours. They were old reds. You know, plungers. So those were like old and nasty. Nasty. And they drank out of them. Oh, dang. They said they swished them around in the stool a little bit to wash them off. Oh, God.
Okay. We might have to edit that out.
That'd probably be a good idea. Wow. Staying in. They did. They did. So then when, when they came back with this, we'll put an explicit thing. When they came back, you know, the next reg, right. They brought these plungers. Oh,
and they had on a plaque on a plaque they had one other one for us yeah so we had to stand up on the bar and you know we drank out of a plunger we still got that picture i bet we do yeah yeah russ and i had to get on the bar and the place is absolutely packed and them guys are screaming yeah and we had a drink out of it we had a new plunger though yeah they're new okay okay they're all new we russ and i drank new ones yeah yeah
I think that original one went on the plaque, though. It did. I think it was.
Do you guys have a lot of pictures from some of the crazy?
I used to take a lot of pictures.
I have pictures.
I think a lot of them got burned up, though. I still have a few pictures left.
I can say for us recently, if it happens after like seven o'clock at night, we're out. And that's when the good stuff happens though.
That's when the really good stuff happens.
That's why you'll never have a picture of us doing things like that there.
Well, I think we probably did. We did in the past.
The flaming Statue of Liberty shot that I did there was pretty epic. You hosted Dina's 31st birthday party.
You actually did. My late husband threw me a 31st birthday party there.
And why was it 31st?
Because he did not throw me a 30th birthday party and I may have mentioned it to him. And so I was like a month out of having a baby and he decided that was the time to have a 31st birthday party for me. But I have pictures. I loved it. But it's a red story. It is a red story.
So what going forward? I mean, what's the future for you guys? You're 38 years into this. Any end in sight?
So, yeah, Reds has been Reds for 70 years now. Yeah. You think about it that way. Wow.
And I'd like to say, what happens at Reds stays at Reds. Oh, wait, wait. We've already told the story.
We didn't tell all of them. Yeah. There's a lot that happened.
You got to come in to hear the other stories.
Yeah.
But, yeah, I mean, seriously, what about the future for both you guys? Nothing? I don't know. We never really talked about it.
Yeah. Well, he's going to be 65 here shortly, so.
Retirement.
Probably.
Well, we're getting there. We don't want to take you guys with us, though. We want you guys to be there for us. Getting tired. Yeah. Well, you're still working at Pepsi. Yeah. Bruce. Yeah. And going to continue that. For a little while. Yeah. Yeah. Russ, this has been your life since you were 19 years old. Yeah. No plans on changing any of it.
I was going to say, you've gained so many friends. Oh, my God. Yeah.
I know a lot of people.
Yeah. And your friends, we've kind of come to know, too. And we've been down there and met them. And, of course, the biking community is huge. Yeah.
Oh, yeah, the soft trail that goes right by, you know, through Breda.
Yeah.
It's a halfway mark between Swan Lake and Lakeview.
Yeah, you guys are always the meeting point for everybody from Lakeview, everybody from Carroll. They all meet in red. Especially on Thursday nights. Oh, yeah.
Funny story. John and I decided to go up to, I think we're in Mankato. We decided to bike the trails up there and we get in our bikes and we bike, you know, about six miles. And we're like, where's, where's the bars? We're like back home. The bars are there. About every five, six miles. Yeah. There was no bar. So we had to come back home.
So think back to 19-year-old Russ buying that bar. Did you ever think that it would be at this point?
No, no. I thought, okay, maybe till 30 I'll be out of here then, you know, or something. But 30 came and gone. 40 came and gone. I was going to say 50 came and gone. Yeah. It's like, now I'm still here.
By the way.
Yeah. 26 when you bought it. Yeah. I had no idea either. It was like, well, we're just going to wing it, I guess. And I didn't have no idea how long we'd be there either.
You know, by the way, what a great legacy for both of you in the community and everything you've done for the community. Again, I keep going back to, um,
It's synonymous with Breda.
The life events that you've held there, I think is amazing.
Street dances and stuff like that.
Anniversaries, weddings, birthdays, the countless.
What a great legacy.
Yeah.
I think we might need a second podcast just to tell the stories we can't tell.
Yes. Let's do that.
So we are going to wrap it up.
Yes.
God, thank, thank God for breads. Thank God for you guys. Cause it's, it's been the most iconic place around this area that we can think of.
Yeah. We look forward to going down there all the time. Yeah.
Still look forward to it every single time. We're going down to see Russ and Bruce. Yeah. All right.
Cheers. Cheers to Reds, man. Cheers.
Thanks, guys, for doing this.
I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Making your way to Smartown Bar It takes a lot of work Year after year Whiskey and beer Serving it to jerks Isn't it nice Every now and then To go where good times never end, let's head to Red's home of the hoops. Home of the hoops. Where you're always in the loop. You want to go where you can see Bruce's toothy smile. You want to go where everything he wears in style. Play some foos and throw some dots, a pool for a bet. Now and then your best girlfriend will get her t-shirt wet. Isn't it nice when you feel beat? Get out the house into Main Street, let's head to Red's home of the who. You want to go where you can see Bruce's toothy smile. You want to go where everything he wears in style. Beach parties and graduates and surprise birthday cakes. New Year's Eve tuxedo tops and russet sexy legs. Isn't it nice having Hi, everybody. Neil!
