March 30, 2022

A longtime original South Dakota pizzeria is making its return to Sioux Falls this week.

Charlie’s Pizza House will open Thursday in the former Look’s Marketplace near 69th Street and Western Avenue. Temporary hours will be 4 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday — but not today — until it’s fully staffed and then will be open daily for supper and eventually for lunch.

“I think it will be fun on this side of town,” said owner Chuck Rezac, who also owns Charlie’s in Yankton. “I think McNally’s and us will be a good, nice little fit together. So yeah, I’m just excited to be open. It’s been a long process. I think we started in October.”

Opening a restaurant is no easy task in the midst of a construction boom and supply chain issues.

But the space at 6213 S. Old Village Place is ready to go, minus a mural that a local artist will paint inside and old metal signs and mirrors that will be hung as they’re collected, Rezac said. Those minor details didn’t stop the restaurant from hosting a few invite-only test runs last weekend.

A nearly floor-to-ceiling wall separates the bar from the dining area. The restaurant in Yankton is set up the same way, and both sides are family-friendly.

“It’s more of a family place than a bar, but we’ll see,” he said.

Both sides have elevated booths along the dividing wall. There are regular tables on both sides, and several high-top ones on the bar side.

The booths and bar stools that are covered in red and green vinyl are a nod to the decor in Yankton, along with the plaid carpet, said Rezac, who bought what was the last remaining location six years ago. Charlie Chotto started Charlie’s in 1959 and expanded to several locations. The Sioux Falls restaurant on South Minnesota Avenue operated from the 1960s through the 1980s.

In keeping with a Yankton tradition, the new Sioux Falls restaurant has a fish tank that’s stocked with eight baby piranha.

“There’s always been a piranha in Yankton. Some people never even really realized it,” Rezac said. “It was back in the bar, but once we redid the bar in Yankton, we moved the piranha front and center in the bar so now everybody sees it.”

The tank in Sioux Falls is right behind the hostess station. To the right of that, customers will find a pickup counter for to-go orders.

The pizza offerings are identical to Charlie’s in Yankton.

“We have a large, which is 17-inch, a medium that’s a 12, and a small that’s 8,” he said. “The menu is kind of all the old stars from the ’60s and ’70s. Festus would be the one that we get the (title of) best pizza in South Dakota from Food Network Magazine. We’ve had that three or four different times. That’s pretty cool.”

Festus has pepper jack cheese-covered meatballs, jalapeno and sauerkraut.

“Our probably most popular ones would be the Festus and the Three Stooges.”

Three Stooges has beef, bacon, cheddar cheese and dill pickle spears.

“But there’s kind of a – I don’t mean to say cult following – but a cult following for the rest of them. In Yankton, people pretty much always get the same thing. We’ve tried some new pizzas at times, and it’s hard to get people out of that, whatever they like.”

The kitchen crew grinds the cheese, and the crust is made fresh nearly every day, Rezac said.

“It’s a hand-tossed. It’s got a unique flavor to it. We season the crust. That’s kind of our calling card is the seasoning that’s on the crust. It’s just a different pizza. It’s hard to kind of explain it until you try it.”

Customers can build their own pizzas too. In addition to traditional toppings, ingredients include meatballs, shrimp, crab, spinach and artichoke. Sauces include marinara, alfredo and barbecue.

A gluten-free crust is available for medium-size pizzas. Rezac plans to explore nondairy cheese options.

The menu is filled out with a couple of salads, cheese bread, garlic bread, bone-in wings and two Charlinos, or little stuffed pizzas, with meatballs or chicken and bacon.

Charlie’s won’t take reservations, but with seating for 160 customers and two pizza ovens, Rezac anticipates being able to “turn tables relatively quickly.” But these aren’t ovens that cook pizzas in seconds. As the menu cautions, “Please allow 30 minutes oven time for each pizza.”

The bar features 24 taps with domestic and craft beers, including some from Sioux Falls and Yankton breweries, and hard seltzer.

“I wanted to do more because we didn’t have a liquor license, so give them more variety,” he said. Customers also will find a selection of beer and seltzers in bottles and cans.

“And we are doing a lot more of the wine here than we do in Yankton,” Rezac said. “I have a buddy that’s a wine sommelier, and he’s helping me with all the wines and what to pair with, and then he’ll train them on how to present the wines. We didn’t really get into that in Yankton, but we’re going to try it here. It’s going to be fun.”

The restaurant serves Coke products and 1919 Root Beer by the glass or the pitcher.

The pizzeria won’t start with its own delivery drivers, but Rezac would like to add them eventually.

First, he needs to fill out the kitchen and serving staff. Jobs are posted on indeed.com. 

And will the pizza be the same as the now grown-up former college students in Sioux Falls remember?

“I’ve been eating Charlie’s since I was a kid, and now I’m almost 40, and it’s always tasted the same. We tried it last night, and it tasted the same,” he said of a test run before several soft-opening events over the weekend. “We were happy about the way it came out.”