Dec. 20, 2021

This paid piece is sponsored by Sioux Metro Growth Alliance.

When you choose to dine out this winter, you might be surprised what you discover with a quick trip outside of Sioux Falls.

“The dining scene in our metro communities is getting better all the time,” said Jesse Fonkert, president and CEO of Sioux Metro Growth Alliance.

“I think visitors will love finding new favorite places to visit once they try some of these places out, plus tie in some of the unique shopping and entertainment that they’ll find in these towns too.”

Here’s a look at five new destinations to try next time you dine out.

The Combine, Garretson

Leory Austin, owner-operator, opened The Combine at 529 Main St. in Garretson in October.

What made you decide to bring this restaurant to the community?

We wanted to bring a family-friendly sports bar and grill to Garretson and the surrounding community.

What has the response been like from the community?

The community has been great! We have had a lot of positive comments and seen people from all over the area: Brandon, Sioux Falls, Luverne, Baltic, Dell Rapids and many more. We appreciated everyone’s kind comments and business. We are currently looking for front and back of the house management candidates.

How would you describe the vibe/atmosphere?

The Combine is a small-town sports bar and grill with awesome food and exceptional service. It boasts 15 large TV, four dart boards, five video lottery machines and a Touch Tunes jukebox.

What are some of the menu specialties? Customer favorites?

Menu specialties are Cajun Ranch Bacon Cheeseburger with an egg, The Combine Bin (cheese curds, chicken strips, french fries, mini tacos and onion rings) and our steaks. Customer favorites have to be our wings. They have a lot of meat on them compared to other wing places and can come with a dozen sauces and dry rubs.

Daily specials: The Combine tries to have a daily special. Check its Facebook page for updates. Saturday nights, there’s a 10-ounce prime rib with a baked potato and soup or salad for $19.75.

Holiday to-do: Buy a $50 gift card, and get a free appetizer cheese curd or onion rings. Buy a $100 gift card, and get a free order of 10 wings.

Creekside Meats, Hartford

Casey Remmers, a partner and manager, filled us in on grab-and-go and prepared food options at Creekside Meats, which opened in October at 217 W. South St. in Hartford.

What made you decide to bring Creekside Meats to the community?

We had talked about doing something like this for years. We have always done a lot of cooking for various events and wanted to extend that further into the process. We chose Hartford because of its continued growth, and seeing what was in Hartford at this time, we thought it would be a good fit. So we contacted the city development group and worked through them to get the ball rolling.

What has the response been like from the community?

The response has been great from the community. We have a lot of customers that stop in each and every week. Most of our advertising is done through social media because it is fast and efficient to get the word out. The best advertising we get is word of mouth though. We love to hear so-and-so sent me in here because they said how great something is at Creekside. We are so proud to be a part of the community and give people options that were not here before. We like to make things easy for our customers. With our staff, each one of us takes pride in delivering our customers our very best. Our business model is first to start with quality products for our customers, then is to give our customers the best customer service they have ever experienced. We believe if we can do those two things everything else will take care of it.

How would you describe the vibe/atmosphere?

When you walk through our doors, the first thing you will take in is the smell. You will smell smoked meats or fresh bread baking. The next thing you will see is how open it is here. We don’t want you to feel pushed or congested here. Next, you will hear one of us welcoming you to Creekside.

Our Creekside family enjoys getting to know our customers so we can better serve them. This is just as important as the products we serve. Then, as you are here, you will see how our selections are growing each week to what our customers are requesting and ideas we have to meet our customers’ wants and needs. We want you to walk out of here with a feeling of wow, that is a completely different shopping experience.

What do you offer as far as a grab-and-go menu? What have some of the customer favorites been?

Some of the items we have done so far are smoked chickens, smoked tri-tip, smoked pulled pork, smoked French dip sandwich kits, sous vide steaks, smoked prime rib and smoked turkeys.

We will be doing some smoked baby back ribs, bread bowl soups and our homemade pizzas in the near future. Also we have take-and-bake pizza, meatloaf, cheesy hash browns, Swiss steak, scalloped potatoes and ham, tater tot hot dish, lasagna and breakfast bake that you can take home and bake. We make fresh buns daily too. We also sell a lot of sweet rolls and chocolate chip cookies for people to take home and bake up.

Daily specials: There are nightly specials during the week posted on social media and the website each week and daily.

Holiday to-do: Creekside Meats will be selling prime rib up to Christmas Eve and can sell it raw or smoke one for you. “If you add my mom’s special au jus, you will be blown away. She can’t even tell you her recipe if she tried. She has been making it for years and just goes by taste to make sure it is right,” Remmers said.

Gift cards are available in any denomination or select a holiday gift box with a variety of options. Quantity discounts are available.

Thyme Cafe & Catering, Lennox

Taylor Massey opened her business last month. While she’s looking for a physical location, she’s currently using the kitchen at Chef Ellen in Sioux Falls and arranging for meal pickup in Lennox. Follow her on Facebook for details on locations and potential delivery options.

What made you decide to bring this restaurant to the community?

My vision is for an open concept, very nice, fresh type of environment. Right now, I just want to get away from that bar food that Lennox has as their only option, so I don’t really have items that are fried.

What has the response been like from the community?

It’s been going well. I take orders and deliver them hot and ready to go, and people can request them cold to make later in the week. That’s really been taking off.

What do you offer as far as a menu? What are customer favorites?

I have my staple items. Chicken alfredo has been No. 1, and Salisbury steak has been No. 2. I also have done butter chicken over jasmine rice and a chicken bacon pasta.

I just try to come up with something different every week and keep my staple items going. Portions range from two up to a family of six or eight. I will also do baked goods to order.

What’s next: “We’re still looking on new spaces, but it’s a work in progress. A hood system is what I really need, so we’re just kind of working through it. We’re going to try out pickup locations for now, and I’m going to try and work into other businesses. D&D Small Engine Repair has been great because it’s on the outskirts of Lennox and convenient when you’re driving into town.

Zooks Coffee Bar, Tea

Linda Kokenge, owner and manager, opened Zooks Coffee Bar at 815 Gateway Lane in Tea on Sept. 15.

What made you decide to bring this restaurant to the community?

We have limited restaurant options in Tea. The community needed a place to grab coffee and breakfast or even a light lunch — coming soon. And also a place to sit down with friends or business colleagues.

What has the response been like from the community?

The response has been amazing. The community is excited to have options for coffee and food. We have a strong sense of community here and believe strongly in supporting local.

How would you describe the vibe/atmosphere?

People visiting love our vibe. When I was designing the space, I kept thinking about a New York City loft feel. I think the atmosphere is moody, chill, cozy, calm. The space makes you want to sit down and stay awhile.

We also have it a pay-it-forward board for anyone who wants to gift another with a cup of coffee. That is growing, and people love the idea. We have had a couple of people donate $100 worth of cards for vets and nurses.

What are some of the menu specialties? Customer favorites?

Our cinnamon rolls have become super popular. We just rolled out our breakfast sandwich — sausage, egg, cheese, croissant — and flatbreads.

We are giving biscuits and gravy a try to see if it takes. Muffins and coffee cake are also hard to keep in stock. We had Zebra doughnuts — Zebras at Zooks — here a few weeks ago, and that was crazy! We will be having those more once the Centerville bakery opens back up in March.

I don’t have a full kitchen, so I have to get creative on what we can offer and how, but I know the community will be excited with these options. We also introduced “split cups” recently, which went wild. That will become a staple for sure.

Daily specials: Stay tuned. There will be specials once Zooks starts lunch service. And the plan is to also add happy hour appetizers from 4 to 6 p.m. during the week.

Holiday to-do: Try the seasonal drinks. Check out this list:

• Frosted Mint Latte
• Salted Carmel/Gingerbread Chai
• Egg Nog Cold Brew
• White Chocolate Cookie Butter Hot Chocolate
• Naughty Elf Buzzed Drink

Boss’ Pizzeria & Sports Bar, Tea

Owner Jeremy Seefeldt brings Boss’ Pizzeria & Sports Bar to Tea this month in the former Tea Steak House at 215 S. Main Ave. and gave us a preview of what to expect.

What made you decide to bring this restaurant to the community?

We have been looking for a location to put our sports bar concept that focuses on local sports into a place that has a neighborhood or community around it that will be really interested in what we put together. The Ramada location (in Sioux Falls) is great for fans that stop in when there are events at the Premier Center, but there isn’t a lot of neighborhood around there to draw from, so we were looking for a place that could be a really nice neighborhood place. The steakhouse was for sale, and Tea is the greatest “neighborhood” we could ever find for what we are trying to do, so it made a ton of sense!

What has the response been like from the community?

Well, we aren’t open yet obviously, but the response has been really good for the most part. There are certainly some local people that are upset that the steakhouse is no more because that is a legendary place that has been there for so many years and they had a great business. The owners wanted to sell it to someone who kept the steakhouse going but were ready to move on and sell it to whoever wanted to buy it. We aren’t in the steakhouse business, but we’re trying to build a place that is completely based on Tea Area sports and the Tea community, so I think a lot of people are excited about that.

How would you describe the vibe/atmosphere?

There will be TVs throughout the entire restaurant and bar, and we will have five tickers throughout the place that will stream headlines from Tea Area sports currently, along with some historical tidbits. The tables will have articles from the Argus and Tea Weekly on them, which will be nice conversation starters. There will be a game room with darts, pool, pinball and some other games, and there will be Tea sports things on the walls throughout. There will be a separate casino area, formerly O’Toole’s Bar area, which we still will call O’Toole’s Casino as a nod to the original owners. We’ve redone the floor in the entire dining and seating area besides the Events Center, so it should have a good look. We plan to have events like comedy and potentially bands out in the Events Center when we don’t have other weddings, banquets or other get-togethers scheduled.

What are some of the menu specialties? Customer favorites?

Obviously, pizza and broasted chicken are a huge part of our menu, so they are the big ones. Our specialty pizzas are the cornerstone of our business as we have 38 specialty pizzas now, and a lot of them you can’t get anywhere else because of our unique sauces and combinations. We just added sandwiches to our menu, which have been a huge hit as the ciabatta buns we use for those sandwiches are just fantastic and they are heavy on the meat and cheese, and I think these sandwiches are, over time, going to become a really big part of our menu. In Tea, we will also have cheeseburgers and fries, which hopefully will help take away the sting of the steakhouse not being available anymore. Of course, we’ll still have our gluten-free options, salads, desserts and extensive appetizer menu. Our pastas are fantastic too, which a lot of people don’t know about until they see someone else get one. In summary, while we won’t have steaks, we have something for pretty much everyone to eat.

Daily specials: They will be the same as all the locations and can be found at www.bosspizzaandchicken.com.

“The Tea Steak House had daily lunch specials that people loved like roast beef on certain days of the week,” Seefeldt said. “We are kicking around adding some daily lunch specials just for Tea, but honestly, all we’ve been thinking about mostly leading up to the open is getting the things done that we need to do just to get open. I’m confident we’ll come up with something for lunch daily specials that will be a huge hit, but it won’t start the day we open.”