Squealers expands restaurant

While Squealers Smoke Shack just opened their restaurant in August, they have already expanded their space.

Co-owner Andrea Kuipers, who owns the catering and restaurant business with her husband, Dustin, and his parents, Lowell and Shelley, said they wanted to expand because they needed more kitchen space and the building was originally supposed to be one suite instead of two.

“We were really running low on kitchen space. Our catering business has been going crazy,” Kuipers said. “When the space became available we jumped on it because we knew that we needed the kitchen space.”

They expanded their kitchen by 12-feet-by-14-feet. That extra space allows for more cooks in the kitchen, more prep area, more refrigerator space and another fryer.

Besides adding onto the kitchen, they expanded into the north end of the building. That area includes two dart boards, which Kuipers hopes will bring in a couple of dart teams they can sponsor. That area will also be home to video lottery machines when they are delivered.

They also increased their seating capacity to 96. Their manager Roxie Stanga has been instrumental in keeping the restaurant running well.

With their expansion they were able to extend their concrete bar into a U-shape. That allowed them to more fully stock their bar.

“We had a beer and wine license from the get go. Come Jan. 1, we had a full liquor bar. We needed more space for that as well,” she said.

Kuipers said they added draft beers so they now have six beers on tap along with their bottled beer they carried before.

Squealers continues to use its truck for catering and special events. They offer lunch and dinner at the restaurant Monday through Saturday. With the expansion, they can now offer a party space in the north end of the building that can seat up to 30.