June 19, 2019

Dale Dachtler is the new owner of a Sioux Falls icon. He’s just not sure yet what to do with it.

The business owner bought the former Bob’s Cafe building at 1312 W. 12th St. recently. He previously owned America’s Pride Storage in Sioux Falls and Dakota Grill in Tea.

He has not decided to keep Bob’s as a restaurant yet, though.

“Help is tough to come by, almost impossible,” he said.

He’s working through the city to determine what his options might be for the property. He has submitted an application to sell alcohol in the property that’s expected to be considered next month. For now, he’s demolishing the interior.

“We’re going to rip it all apart and go from there,” Dachtler said. “The inside is really bad.”

His purchase also included the well-known Bob’s sign. He’s not sure what he will do with that, either.

Bob’s was renamed Cluckin’ Good Chicken & BBQ two years ago and moved to the east side.

Bob’s originally was called the Pickle Palace. The building was built in 1944 from lumber recovered from a downtown building fire, according to a history published on the restaurant’s website.

The Lyons family ran Bob’s Cafe for 50 years until 2000, when it was sold to Ben Weiland and renamed Bob’s Carry Out & Delivery with a focus on broasted chicken.

Bob Lyons died in 2018 at age 97.

While the building was on the market for a couple of years, there was considerable interest in it, according to Scott Van Ginkel of Vantis Commercial Real Estate Advisors, who sold it.

“We had tons of interest in it. People looked at it for car sales lots and things like that, but once you change the use, the setbacks go into effect, and it becomes unusable for something like that,” he said.