Pull Tabs and Meat Raffles – Minnesota Night life

One of the more unusual things that Minnesotans take part in are meat raffles and playing pull tabs. Neither of which I did until a few weeks ago. Our neighbors, Chris and Kristin, and us headed up to our local neighborhood bar, Eagles Nest Lounge, to try to win some meat. Our local butcher donates meat to the Lions Club so that they can raffle it off. It is a great fundraiser for the Lions Club as well as advertising for the butcher shop.

I didn't know what to expect. While we waited for the meat raffle to begin we each bought some pull tabs. I don't really know how to explain pull tabs except that they are little cards that you "pull tabs" back to see if you have 3 of a kind in a row. I actually won $55! We put that money towards our meat raffle tickets.

The meat raffle consists of buying numbers. Someone spins a wheel. Whatever number is landed on is the winner. I won in the second round. I had my pick of a variety of meats. I ended up getting 2 T-bone steaks. Kristin won the next round, picking 2 sirloin steaks. Another table was getting rowdy saying the thing was rigged. We couldn't stop laughing. Who would have thought I would be excited to win meat? Anyway, the next several rounds went to other people. I won once more picking up a dozen hot dogs and some bacon. Kristin won in the last round with 7 pounds of ground beef.

We had a great time. I think we made out pretty well. All of that meat for essentially the cost of our pull tabs which I think was about $40. Not a bad deal. We grilled out our steaks and they were delicious! Our next barbeque will be hot dogs.