July 6, 2021

A Mexican restaurant from operators new to Sioux Falls is coming to south Sioux Falls.

Reyes Aranda discovered South Dakota last year after his nine other restaurants in Michigan and Wisconsin had to temporarily shut down because of pandemic restrictions.

It led him to Brookings, where he opened La Cantina almost a year ago.

The location in Sioux Falls will be in a retail center in front of Walmart at 85th Street and Minnesota Avenue and be a partnership with his friend and former neighbor, who owns La Plaza Fiesta in Minnesota. It will be called La Plaza Fiesta, but the menu likely will draw on items from all of the sister restaurants, Aranda said.

“It’s 100 percent authentic,” he said, adding he is from central Mexico.

At more than 4,200 square feet, it’s big enough both for sit-down dining and a bar area, and “that’s small compared to my other restaurants,” he said. “Most of mine are at least 6,000, but that was the only thing available in that area.”

It’s a solid location, said Scott Blount of Lloyd Cos., who leased Aranda the space.

“They’re very good operators. They’ve been around a long time. It’s a family-run operation, and they saw 85th and Minnesota as a strategic location because it’s rather underserved for ethnic restaurants, and they love being in a strip mall in front of Walmart,” Blount said.

“And they love the business climate in South Dakota.”

The hope is to open later this fall, Aranda said.