By the time patio weather arrives, The Rush will have outdoor seating to enjoy it.

The bar, which has been expanding over the years in the Plaza 41 retail center on 41st Street east of Kiwanis Avenue, is adding a patio.

Workers have poured the concrete pad, and the next step is cutting a doorway into the east side of the building, owner Al Grey said. In addition to providing a spot to enjoy the bar’s food or a drink outside in nicer weather, the patio, which will seat 46, will accommodate smokers who lost their spot near the bar’s north-side entrance.

After South Dakota voters approved an indoor smoking ban for businesses in 2010, the previous owner of the bar put a few tables and chairs outside, Grey said.  He and his wife, Stephanie, bought the bar — then known as the Gold Rush Casino — in 2012 and kept the outdoor smoking area, not realizing that it wasn’t allowed under their liquor license. After city officials discovered the violation in the spring of 2017, the Greys removed the tables and chairs.

“The landlord didn’t really want us out there,” so he agreed to let them use the east-side space for a patio, which will be surrounded with a wrought-iron fence, Grey said.

“We’re getting the doorway ready this winter to have it up so people can get excited about it,” Grey said of the outdoor seating. If the work is done before the cold weather is gone, he may add patio heaters.