Feb. 21, 2024

The only clue that a popular neighborhood bar on the east side of Sioux Falls has new owners might be the red University of Oklahoma table.

It’s one of few changes that the Sooners fan, Bobby Kramer, made after he and his wife, Theresa Flannery Kramer, bought Botski’s Bar & Grill at 1914 S. Sycamore Ave. last fall.

That and replacing the boxed wine with bottled wine and adding wine glasses. Flannery Kramer, after all, is the owner of Ode to Food and Drinks, the downtown restaurant overlooking the Big Sioux River from the original Cherapa Place building. “Nothing fancy or intimidating,” she notes. “It’s not a huge wine list, but yeah, there is some better wine.”

The atmosphere created by original owner Jon “Jono” Bot remains the same: a small sports bar – it seats 50 people — where cold beer, fried chicken and weekend breakfasts draw regulars.

“People will say, ‘Oh, I got to Botski’s, but I’m not a regular there; I only go like once or twice a week,’” Flannery Kramer said. “That’s because the regulars are so regular. They have their spots and their tables, so to them (the once-or-twice-a-week customers), that’s not regular.”

The regulars have been reassured that the name isn’t changing, and “we’re not going to mess with the chicken,” Flannery Kramer said.

Small cosmetic improvements have been and will be made, she said. The couple changed the tabletops from images of music bands to college and professional sports teams and brought in some of their personal sports memorabilia. When Oklahoma is playing, at least one TV will have the game on for Kramer, who oversees Botski’s while Flannery Kramer guides Ode, although they do help out wherever as needed.

The Kramers bought Botski’s from Mike Klinedinst, who took it over in 2018 after his close friend Bot died from cancer.

The couple learned through their lawyer that Klinedinst was interested in selling but hadn’t put the business on the market.

“That was on a Saturday, and Sunday morning, we came in here and sat down, had breakfast and kind of fell in love with the place starting that morning,” Kramer said.

“We knew of it, but we hadn’t been over all that much,” Flannery Kramer said.

The team at Botski’s made taking over the operation smoother, the couple noted. They promoted one of the servers to front of house manager and enticed a former kitchen manager to return.

“People always say ‘well, this place kind of runs itself.’ It does, but you still need some key people that you can count on,” Flannery Kramer said.

Some of the staff at Ode have helped fill shifts as needed at Botski’s, and that has worked out well, they said.

With a full kitchen staff, the Kramers were able to return to a full menu at the east-side bar.

“When we first took over, the menu had been whittled down here. They were on a temporary, smaller menu just because there was high turnover in the kitchen,” Kramer said. “Right now, we’ve got great kitchen staff here that are solid, and so we brought back a full menu and brought back some of the favorites that everybody was asking about, brought back pizzas and that kind of stuff.”

While the fried chicken is the biggest seller, burgers, hand-breaded chicken strips and evening specials are popular too, he said. Those are in the process of being revamped and will be introduced March 1. Customers can follow Botski’s Facebook page for updates.

The bar sells a lot of chicken and homemade sides for carryout, but it doesn’t offer catering. The chicken is fried to order, “so we don’t want to mess with the integrity of the chicken,” Flannery Kramer noted.

Breakfast, which is served from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday and Sunday, is popular, she said.

“We do a pretty traditional breakfast, what you would find like in a diner or something,” she said. “There’s omelets and your eggs made to order, French toast, pancakes and things like that.”

Botski’s opens at 3 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. on the weekend. Closing time depends on how busy it – “sometimes during the week, it can be 10ish. On the weekends it could be midnight,” Kramer said.

The kitchen closes at 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

So while there might be new owners of the neighborhood bar, the legacy of Jon “Jono” Bot lives on.

It is, as the regulars describe it and will continue to be, according to Kramer, “a small-town bar in a big city.”