Big Boar BBQ coming to north side, food truck first

Site has been empty since former service station came down.

A long time coming for a potential development on the corner of Gillette and George streets in La Crosse.

The lot has been empty for a couple of decades, since the Johnny’s Aloha service station closed shop there. 

Now, a La Crosse committee looks at preliminary plans for a new Big Boar BBQ restaurant.

Senior city planner, Tim Acklin said there’s been plenty of plans for that site in the past but this one’s different.

“Probably the more recent ones that seems to have created a lot of buzz,” he said. “It would be very positive for that intersection and for the north side.”

Big Boar BBQ owner Jerry Beyer initially plans a food truck for the site this summer and then the restaurant there if business goes well.

Beyer said, “If we run for a while this summer–a month or two–and the traffic seems really good and the restaurant numbers come in good, we’ll say, ‘okay, let’s a build a restaurant’ then it’s a matter of how soon it could be done.”

Beyer said he’d use the same food truck that his business started in.

“My personal feeling is that will go over very well if we can do it,” he said.

Big Boar BBQ currently has sites in West Salem and downtown La Crosse.