While he had little time to step off the food line and enjoy the bands on Saturday, Animales’ founder and meat guru Jon Wipfli seemed happy to have added live music to the menu.

“Eating barbecue isn’t just about the food. It’s also about gathering with friends and family,” Wipfli said. “Our music here will be an extension of that, something else to gather around.”

The entrance to Animales Thursday evening, October 23, 2025. Animales BBQ, the hotly hyped new restaurant doubling as a performance venue, largely focused on singer/songwriters and Americana acts, began their opening weekend of events with a night of music from local stalwart Al Church Thursday night, October 23, 2025 in Minneapolis. ] JEFF WHEELER • Jeff.Wheeler@startribune.com (Jeff Wheeler/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The music wasn’t just an afterthought, though. Cody Audio of Minneapolis installed the sound system at Animales, having built a strong reputation on the sonic setups at both Berlin and the Green Room. Former Bon Iver band member Mike Noyce, who also works at Berlin, is serving as the new venue’s in-house sound engineer.

“This is very different from Berlin,” Noyce noted with a no-duh smile as he worked the room on Saturday.

Pointing to acoustic padding and other treatments installed around the large, high-ceilinged room, he added, “They put a lot of money into making sound improvements that a lot of venues like this won’t do.”

“It’s still a work in progress, but I’m confident everything in here can co-exist.”