Oct. 17, 2022

A 1908 building that once was a neighborhood grocery store will become the new home of a breakfast and lunch restaurant from well-known local restaurateurs.

The building at 100 S. Grange Ave. was purchased by attorney and property redeveloper Alex Halbach last year with a vision of bringing it back to a neighborhood commercial use.

Thanks to a $95,000 facade easement grant approved today by the Sioux Falls City Council, construction will be starting soon.

Rendering by Koch Hazard Architects

“That’s the key to making this work. The numbers just don’t make sense otherwise,” said Halbach, owner of Boulevard Properties.

“It’s going to be a fun project. I really want to use this project to set the tone for what small commercial development in residential neighborhoods can look like.”

Much of the building will become a new full-service restaurant serving breakfast and lunch from local restaurateurs Jordan Taylor and Barry Putzke — the owners of Bread & Circus Sandwich Kitchen, Pizza Cheeks and En Place Catering.

Putzke and Taylor are teaming up with Halbach and Patrick Sayler, the general manager of the Sioux Falls Food Co+op, “to bring this local-centric, coffee-forward scratch breakfast concept to life,” the group said in a statement.

“We are installing a full commercial kitchen in a tiny space. There will be a small indoor dining room, along with a large outdoor patio and a rooftop patio as well. We will also have a large landscaped backyard space for summer yard games,” Putzke said.

“We are busy working on the name and menu, and we hope to announce more details in the next few months as construction gets started, but we are excited for what this restaurant will mean for both the neighborhood and for the city and believe there is nothing quite like this concept in Sioux Falls.”

The restaurant will include full-service breakfast and lunch options, with an express menu for grab-and-go patrons, as well as a seasonal menu with as many locally sourced dishes as possible.

Construction is expected to take up to six months, with a likely restaurant opening in early spring of 2023.

The building will require a lot of work, including a new brick facade, new windows, a new roof, electrical, plumbing and HVAC.

“It’s a significant undertaking for such a small building, but it’s what’s right to preserve the building and the role it played in developing this neighborhood,” Halbach said.

An application is pending with the National Park Service to list the building on the National Register of Historic Places, given its significance as an early neighborhood grocery store.

Once construction is a bit farther along, Halbach plans to begin marketing the second floor as office space. It allows for about 1,000 square feet and would be a good fit for an attorney, insurance agent or another professional service use, he said.

“We need someone that appreciates the neighborhood and appreciates the proximity to downtown,” he said. “It’ll be a really energized space being right on the corner.”

In the meantime, Halbach is far from done investing in the neighborhood. He has a triplex to the east under contract and plans to renovate that building into vacation or short-term rentals, while tearing down a garage and integrating the outdoor space of the two properties together.

“It was built in the late ’30s, early ’40s, and it’s kind of like a time machine when you walk in now, which I totally love,” he said. “So we’ll lean into the 1940s with the spaces and renovate them that way.”

Owning both properties allows him to further improve the area, he said. Halbach also envisions becoming a stop on SculptureWalk at Ninth Street and Grange Avenue.

“It will be a really cool project once it’s done,” he said. “Not a day goes by that I don’t hear someone that’s excited about it.”