Living Legend: Still smokin’ after 60 years - Everett’s Jack Pflepsen

By Susan Schaefer

As we say goodbye to one Minneapolis landmark this week, historic Nye’s Polonaise Room, we can celebrate the longevity of another less well-known establishment from the same era. Just downriver a local culinary treasure continues to smoke up a storm.

Featuring two on-location smokehouses, loyal customers have sought the scent and comfort offered by Everett’s Foods for more than 60 years. For a delicious travel back in time take a short ride south along West River Road, make a tight right at 38th Street, and head a few blocks west to Cedar Avenue to find a grocery store and butcher counter where time stands still.

Behind that counter a living legend continues to carve and slice. Jack Pflepsen, owner and butcher, purchased Everett’s from its founder in 1956 and has shown up to engineer his signature homemade sausages, smoked ribs and other fresh cuts of meats ever since since. Now approaching his 87th birthday, Pflepsen looms large behind his gleaming display case. Tall, fit and youthful, Pflepsen’s face belies his years.

“I bought the store from founder Mr. Byrd, who established it in 1932, when I was just 26,” Pflepsen proudly offers. Customers and employees alike are quick to add that he’s worked steadily and reliably almost every day ever since.

“I had four daughters to put through school,” he boyishly beams, explaining his original motivation. One of these four daughters, Nancy Klatke, now Everett's manager, has worked side-by-side with her dad for more than 30 years. He sums it all up with a sincere, “This place has been good to me.”

Certainly, the store and its selections have been good to its customers. The Growler has ranked Everett’s as one of ten prime butchers in Minnesota, and City Pages dubbed it Best Meat Shop, claiming it’s the kind of meat that inspired Americans to turn backyard barbecues “into main events” for culinary competition between neighbors.

The main event at Everett’s may well be the man behind the raves, whose modesty masks a mastery associated with a bygone era when owners and customers forged lifetime relationships based on quality, integrity and respect.

In these days of exponential change, when there is much cause to wax nostalgic over the loss of landmarks and legends, stop by Everett’s to say hello to a living legend, and ask Jack what’s smokin’ – he’s sure to give you a good tip.

Susan Schaefer can be reached at susan@millcitymedia.org.