University Avenue barbecue staple Hickory Hut is marking its 30th anniversary with a daylong celebration Saturday, March 2.

Free anniversary T-shirts will be given to the first 50 customers in the door and, throughout the day, guests can win a variety of free food, gift cards and other merch. Plus, at the end of the day, the restaurant will raffle off big-ticket prizes like a $100 Hickory Hut gift card, a TV, passes to Nickelodeon Universe and a grill.

The restaurant is open 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. No purchase is required to win giveaways throughout the day, and those who buy food can enter their names into the big prize drawing.

Hickory Hut originally opened in 1994 on Lake Street in Minneapolis. The St. Paul spot, on University Avenue near Dale Street, opened in 1996. The Minneapolis location closed in 1998.

Besides ribs and smoked meats, the restaurant is also the modern home of chicken wings made with “Art Song’s Secret Recipe.” Song, a Chicago musician and bartender, moved to the Twin Cities in the 1940s and gained a cult following for the dry-rubbed wings he served at a string of restaurants in Minneapolis through about the 1980s.

Hickory Hut: 647 W. University Ave.; 651-224-9464; hickoryhutstpaul.com

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