March 6, 2025

The final day for Annie’s Coffee Bar & Roastery in Garretson will be Saturday as the coffee shop moves to Brandon.

Owner Anne Pedersen expects to reopen later this month at 721 N. Splitrock Blvd. in a building that also houses Sioux Marble.

Annie’s Coffee Bar & Roastery is moving into part of this building in Brandon (to the left).

“I started out doing coffee roasting there and just decided to move it all to one spot,” Pedersen said. “I’m very excited but have mixed feelings with leaving some of my longtime customers.”

She’s hoping they’ll make the 11-mile drive between the towns to enjoy her coffee and food. For some customers, the move will be like a homecoming. Pedersen started Annie’s in 2004 in Rowena, just south of Brandon. She moved the coffee shop to Garretson in 2009, closed it in 2017 and reopened in 2022.

The move to Brandon also gives her a bigger population to draw from – the town of 11,000 is about 10 times larger than Garretson.

The new space will have an open kitchen, and customers also will be able to watch the process of roasting coffee beans, which Pedersen began doing herself last year. The capacity will be a little larger than the current coffee shop, which seats about two dozen, and she’ll add a patio out front.

Two meeting rooms will be available for groups to use. Pedersen estimates one space will seat 10 people and the other eight.

She’s hoping to expand into another space in the building this summer so she can add more class offerings on topics such as making charcuterie boards and painting.

In addition to the full espresso bar, which features the beans Pedersen roasts, Annie’s will continue to serve breakfast and lunch Tuesday through Saturday and will be open Friday nights and once a month on Sunday for brunch.

Pedersen makes cinnamon rolls, muffins, scones and cookies, in addition to panini sandwiches, wraps, salads and soups for lunch.

The menu for Friday nights features a specialty flatbread, giant pretzels with chunks of kielbasa and a cup of beer cheese dip nestled in the knots and pretzel sticks with beer cheese dip, along with beer and wine. Those “kid-free” evenings run from 5:30 to 9 p.m.

Other hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Pedersen also packages and sells the beans she roasts under the brand Annie’s Blend Coffee.

“I roast from probably six different regions right now,” she said.

For flavored beans, Highlander Grogg with notes of caramel, butterscotch and hazelnut is the most popular. Other roasts have names inspired by the Garreston area like Palisades Park and Splitrock Sunrise. With the move, those might be renamed with more of a South Dakota theme, Pedersen said.