As we head into the primary NFL weekend, Chicago Bears fans (and fans of barbecue) can rejoice — Alary’s Bar in downtown St. Paul has found a culinary partner in Petey’s Texas Bar B Que.

Petey’s owner Mike Peterson has one other tie-in to the famously cop-friendly bar: He’s a former St. Paul Police officer and a law enforcement officer on the U.S. border in Laredo, Texas.

Peterson, who also spent 23 years working for McDonald’s, began learning about smoking meat while he lived down south, but it surely wasn’t until he returned to Minnesota that he really got hooked.

“Once I got it dialed in, people kept wanting increasingly,” Peterson said.

That prompted friends to chip in to assist him buy a trailer-sized smoker that he picked up in Nashville. Those friends were promised food at cost, and a business was born.

After a number of years of unofficial catering for family and friends, one other friend helped Peterson buy a food truck, and he’s been officially operating as a street food vendor — with a short lived residence at JR’s Bar in Burnsville (now closed).

When Peterson and his wife, Tina, who also worked at McDonald’s and helps run the business, saw that Alary’s was reopening and was on the lookout for a culinary partner, they reached out to owner Bill Collins and a partnership was born.

The extensive menu includes fun apps like Texas Stogies (jalapenos full of cream cheese, wrapped in bacon and grilled), smoked wings, smoked queso nachos and rib suggestions. Entrees range from pulled pork, hot links, brisket and smoked turkey to a full menu of burgers and sandwiches.

Though Peterson is a barbecue purist and believes his meat, lovingly smoked over oak logs, should stand by itself, he recognizes that Minnesotans love sauce, and he goes out of his technique to accommodate them with 20 house-made barbecue sauces.

Peterson and Collins need to remind patrons that they’ve free parking in quite a bit and within the ramp round the corner. Food service hours will run 4-9 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. on weekends.

As a thank-you for his or her service, lively and retired members of law enforcement get a 50% discount on food and beverage.

Collins, owner of Camp Bar on Robert Street, bought the previously shuttered Alary’s and reopened it this spring.

Alary’s Bar: 139 E. Seventh St., St. Paul; alarys.com