April 30, 2025

The final days are here for longtime Rosie’s Cafe unless a last-minute buyer steps forward.

Owner Beckie Mettler said Thursday, May 8, will be the final day for the old-school cafe at 2200 W. Madison St., and there will be an open house to say goodbye from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, May 9. She’ll serve hot dogs, chips and other treats.

That event will include Mettler’s mom, Rosie Warner, who in 1984 bought what was then Curly’s Madison Square Cafe and renamed it. Mettler took over almost 25 years ago, but even today, her mom, who turns 77 next month, still comes in for a few hours every morning to cook.

Until the final day, the cafe will be open from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays, serving a menu that hasn’t changed since the day it opened. There are breakfast foods like pancakes, eggs and bacon until 10:45, followed by hamburgers and fries and the daily lunch specials like baked chicken and liver. The final Saturday was last weekend.

Next week isn’t the end of owning a cafe for Mettler. She purchased the building and equipment of the former Old Farmhouse Cafe in Chester and will reopen it as Rosie’s Farmhouse Cafe.

“It’ll be pretty much the same menu and hours,” she said. “6 to 2 Monday through Friday and 7 to 11 on Saturdays.”

Mettler and her husband live on nearby Brant Lake, so she’ll no longer need to drive 35 miles south to Sioux Falls to work as she has for the past three years.

Rosie’s Cafe has been on the market officially for a little more than a week, and there has been some interest, but nothing solid, Mettler said.

She’s holding out hope that someone will take over the cafe that is filled with regular customers, many of whom are retired or work in the area.

Mettler has spent most of her adult life at the cafe. When her mom bought the business, Mettler was a senior in high school, and she began working there then. When she graduated from Washington High School that spring, Rosie’s Cafe was the site of her party with family.

Beckie Mettler (second from right) with employees Ginger Beck, and Arlen and Marla Hawes.

A photo on the cafe’s wall from that day will have a home at Rosie’s Farmhouse Cafe in Chester.

Mettler spent a couple of years working in an office, “but I came and made pies before I went there.” She’s still making pies, along with an employee, and Warner still makes the bread pudding that’s served every day.

Saying goodbye to Rosie’s Cafe hasn’t been easy for Mettler, but she’s excited about bringing a place for the community to gather in Chester.

“It’s definitely in the genes,” she said of running a cafe. “I figured that was what I was supposed to do.”