Christian Brothers Cabinets Sets the Bar High with Bar for Vikings Stadium

Christian Brothers Cabinets, an Owatonna business, has built a 26-foot long bar that will be installed in the Founder's Club at US Bank Stadium. It features a keel more than seven feet tall.

Of the 600 hours put into constructing the Viking-boat shaped bar, 120 hours were spent hand-carving the scales on the keel by Tom VanBinsbergen. The keel is made of fir. The bar top is made of solid walnut with brass inlays of a Viking head and other designs.

Doug Meier of Christian Brothers Cabinets of Owatonna says Shea Architects reached out to them through a series of contacts and asked, "Do you guys think you can build this thing? And we're like, 'Sure.' They had a little concept design. We redid some designing on it. They approved everything. We did a bunch of samples for them to show them what we could do."

Meier says work began in March and finished on May 27. The bar will be transported to US Bank Stadium on Thursday. He says the bar can mostly be disassembled, although the bar top is one solid piece. The bar will be installed in the Founder's Club, which is primarily used by major sponsors and owners.

Christian Brothers hosted an open house Tuesday to celebrate the completion of the job and give local residents a chance to see the work. Many fans wore their Vikings apparel while enjoying food and beverage at the Christian Brothers shop on Alexander Drive in Owatonna's industrial park.

Meier added, "We're just very happy to be a part of US Bank Stadium and part of the Vikings. It's just a great hometown thing for Owatonna. Viracon has done a bunch of work out there. It's kind of nice to get some hometown people up there and involved in it."