GENOLA, Minn. - Tell people in Genola they're full of bologna - and they'll tell you it must be Wednesday.
"Yeah, we're full of it," Janice Kahlhamer laughs after cleaning her plate.
In this town of 75 people, nearly that many have gathered at the Red Rooster bar for Bologna Day, a weekly Genola tradition.
"A lot of Bologna, yes, yes," Janice confirms through her snickers.
For six bucks, lunchers get all-they-can-eat bologna, baked beans and white bread.
A dollar more buys them a glass of beer. Most exercise the option.
"I remember coming with my parents," reminisces Mary Jansen, who owns the Red Rooster with her husband Kelly.
"There's nothing better than the smell of fresh bologna," Mary says, as she carves a knife through several bologna rings she delivers to the buffet table.
"Fresh" is an understatement.
Forty minutes before the day's first bologna was served, it was on a rack, rolling out of the smoker at Thielen Meats, two miles up the road in Pierz.
"It's been smoking since 6:30 this morning," Todd Caddy says. The sausage maker was up with the sun, stuffing the day's bologna in its casing.
March breezes off Lake Superior aren't that fresh.
"You've got to get the horseradish in with the ketchup," says Dennis Seelen, demonstrating his bologna dipping techniques at the Red Rooster.
"You need the bite," he laughs.
As much as Baloney Day is associated with the Red Rooster, the bar credits a competitor for the inspiration.
The Rooster's previous owner, Dennis Hoheisel, "borrowed" the idea from Patrick's bar more than three decades ago.
Which is why two Bologna Days now exist a mile from each other.
"Tomorrow we've got probably 40 people made reservations already for Bologna Days here," reports Joyce Leidenfrost, a Patrick's bartender.
"Yep, Wednesday and Thursday bologna," Dennis proclaims.
Both bars insist any competition is friendly.
"I go there, they come here," says Joyce. "We're all fine."
The Red Rooster's Kelly Jansen agrees. "There's enough Bologna to go around," he laughs.
Just off the bar in the dining room, a plate full of the red sausage is being passed within a group of senior ladies.
"Take your baloney," Bernice Huver advises her neighbor. "I'm going to take another piece off there before it goes down the other way."
Marion Denzen sits across the table. "It's so doggone good everybody wants it," she says.
It's possible a place exists that exceeds Genola's per capita bologna consumption.
But good luck finding a town more adept at dishing it out.
