Aug. 12, 2019

With five kitchens, three patios and at least a half-dozen places to purchase food inside, the future Look’s Marketplace is beginning to take shape.

The 17,000-square-foot building that used to be Callaway’s has been gutted to create what owners Nick Heineman and Beau Vondra are envisioning as a one-of-a-kind food and beverage experience.

“We’ve always wanted to do a food hall like this,” Heineman said. “A marketplace is what we’re calling it. We were born and raised in Sioux Falls and love Sioux Falls, and we think the people of Sioux Falls will really appreciate something like this.”

First, something to know about the outside of the building: It’s not going to look like this forever.

“The neutral color is just fresh siding we’re putting on the building,” Heineman explained. “It’s needed to be cleaned up. And once it’s done, we’ll have it painted white with gray trim.”

Enter the building through the former Callaway’s Pub door and you’ll be inside the Look’s expanded retail space. The product mix will be expanded from its store at 69th Street and Western Avenue.

(Renderings by BCV Architecture + Interiors)

“If you look at it in modern grocery store terms, we’re expanding the outer ring,” Vondra said. “The dry goods aren’t going to expand as much, but the produce and prepared foods and hot offerings and baked goods and ready-made sandwiches are going to expand. And that’s where the trend is going.”

The entire space has been opened up, so you can see from the front to the back.

Along the way, there will be counters for Looks’ butcher shop; a full-service bakery, coffee and ice cream bar; and artisan cheese and charcuterie. Customers can dine at sit-up bars in each or take their food elsewhere in the marketplace.

“We didn’t want people who are our customers now and come in for a pound of ground beef to feel like they can’t still do that in our space,” Vondra said. “They can walk in, see one of our guys behind the counter to get their ground beef and leave.”

The cheese and charcuterie counter will offer an expanded selection with more dedicated mongers, Vondra said, “to give more education to the customers. We want you to ask for samples and experience it before you buy it.”

The octagonal shaped space that used to be the more formal Callaway’s restaurant will include a wrap-around bar and be divided into two sections: a sit-down restaurant with wait service and a community dining area with a variety of seating options.

“The furniture will be modular,” Heineman said. “If for some reason we need more full service, it’s just divided off, so we can make it bigger.”

The menu is still being developed but will include an emphasis on meat cooked over a fire and organic vegetable sides.

They also are installing high-speed internet throughout the building and encourage people to work from the community-seating spaces.

“It’s a community space, so we want people to come get coffee and pastry in the morning and hang out and work, or relax and enjoy a beer or hang out and get ice cream,” Vondra said.

The back of the building includes a small 5-barrel brewery that will serve the marketplace to start. The hope is to begin brewing in September, and there are collaborations planned with other local breweries.

“We’re just going to go and see where it takes us,” Vondra said, adding there has been enough interest that Look’s has started sampling beers at special events this month.

An exhibition kitchen also is under construction and will used for employee training, community training, classes and small parties.

Then there are the outdoor spaces. The future Look’s will have three patios: a small one up front, the one behind the building facing Prairie Green Golf Course that Callaway’s used and a newly developed one on the east side of the building.

“The east side will be a grassy community area with bench seating and gardens,” Heineman said. “It’s going to have community seating as well as individual tables, but we have plans to put park benches, a small dog park and gardens focused on culinary, so fresh basil, lavender and lemongrass.”

They also plan to add two bocce courts just outside the green space.

“The patios should be completed when we open, and as far as operating (this season), it will be whatever the weather allows us to,” Heineman said.

Look’s has started hiring. The owners estimate they need at least 30 employees and are looking for all positions: bartenders, baristas, cooks, cheese mongers, counter staff and dishwashers. They have hired Ted Coulter, a former director of operations for the Famous Dave’s franchise, to oversee restaurant operations.

For information on job openings, email [email protected] or click here.

The space for the current store at 69th Street and Western Avenue is for lease, and Look’s will close about three or four weeks before the new marketplace opens. Construction is on track for an October opening, the owners said.

When the work is done, they envision a place that not only serves the south side of Sioux Falls but also becomes a citywide draw and a place residents want to bring their guests.

“If they have a friend from New York who loves Eataly, we’ve got that in Sioux Falls but with a Midwest feel,” Heineman said.

“We just wanted a special place that people can be really proud of.”