Dec. 12, 2023

A longtime neighborhood bar has new owners who plan to keep its “North End Country Club” charm.

“It’s got to stay the same. That’s why I wanted to purchase it — because I was afraid I was going to lose it. Because this is my neighborhood bar, right? It’s where I go,” said Tommy Heuer, who bought Ken’s Korner at 918 W. Sixth St. with his wife, Cherith, and friends Allan and Mallory Williamson and Bret LaCroix.

“I was worried that somebody’s going to buy it and turn it into something we didn’t need, or because if we lose Ken’s Korner, we’re not going to get it back. You can’t have an establishment like this in a residential area,” he said.

Tommy Heuer outside Ken’s Korner

The dive bar known for its cheap beer and welcoming atmosphere got its start in 1966 as a gas station owned by Ken Vanderloo.

Photo courtesy of Siouxland Heritage Museums

Vanderloo added a garage onto the small building at the corner of Sixth Street and Menlo Avenue, and eventually, he turned it into a neighborhood bar. He died in January at age 92.

For the past 15 years, Keith McGuire owned Ken’s Korner.

Heuer, who was the postal carrier for Ken’s for almost a decade, said McGuire offered to sell him the bar several years ago, but it wasn’t until the five friends were having a beer earlier this year at the new Orion Pub downtown when the plan was hatched.

“We were at Orion’s, and Bret mentioned owning a bar like that. And I was like, ‘Well, Ken’s Korner is for sale.’ I called Keith the next day.”

A few months later, the deal was finalized. They closed the bar for one day, reopening Nov. 9.

Heuer and Allan Williamson both work for the Postal Service, and LaCroix retired from there. Cherith Heuer is a stay-at-home mom for the couple’s two children, and Mallory Williamson is studying to become a nurse. LaCroix owns a bar in White River and other businesses, which Mallory said gave her confidence that the idea could be more than “a great pipe dream.”

While the new owners did raise the price on the first-day-of-the-month beer special from 50 cents to $1 – they were losing 46 cents on every beer sold and now break even – very little has changed. The popcorn is still free, Crystal Boehrns is still the manager, and the other bartenders are still on staff.

“They’re a very good fit for our neighborhood bar,” Boehrns said of the new owners. She has been managing Ken’s for the past three years since losing her job when Jono’s – another longtime bar less than a mile away — closed.

“It’s nice to have somebody that is so hands-on and so willing to accept everything that we already have and just help build onto that.”

In addition to those who live in the North End — the area northwest of downtown that includes St. Joseph Cathedral and Terrace Park — Ken’s Korner draws people from across the city.

“We’ve just opened up the doors to a lot more customer dynamic,” Boehrns said. “We get people from downtown who are tired of spending $6 a beer. We get a lot of overflow from the Denny (Sanford Premier Center). When we have shows at the Levitt, we get pretty busy here.”

Ken’s Korner opens every day at 11 a.m. It’s open Sunday through Thursday until 11 p.m. and until 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights.

For those neighborhood regulars, the bar treats them like family. Boehrns and other bartenders check on older residents who live alone if they haven’t seen them. Fundraisers are common, including an effort to help a homeowner whose foundation started to collapse and a long-running effort to help a toddler with a rare form of cancer.

Boehrns keeps a stack of greeting cards on hand.

“If it’s somebody’s birthday that people didn’t remember, we’ll just run back and grab a birthday card, write (a note) and give them a couple of beers,” she said.

The new owners appreciate the feeling of family that the bar generates but stress that it’s a place for newcomers too.

“Everybody’s very, very welcoming,” Mallory Williamson said. “People are just generally here to kick back and relax. It’s got that relaxed, dive bar atmosphere. … Everybody’s welcome. You know when you walk into a place that feels a little bit prestigious or stuffy? I don’t get that vibe here. Everybody is just like, come as you are. … It’s got this vibe that you could literally go talk to anybody and strike up a conversation and you’d be welcomed and wouldn’t be looked at as like, “Whoa. You’re in my bubble.’”

Heuer has felt that throughout the years.

“Every time I come in here, I can meet somebody new, and I can sit and have a conversation all night. I don’t feel like I can do that anywhere else in Sioux Falls. … That’s what I like about the place is because with social media and everything on the internet right now, it’s hard to have human interaction anymore.”

Newcomers might appreciate one note: The first table when you walk in the door is where the regulars sit.

The next room is the bar, which seats about a dozen and holds a jukebox and video lottery machines.

The bar has three beers on tap and a variety of mostly domestic offerings in bottles and cans. It also serves hard seltzers, and wine likely will be a new offering, the owners said. Ken’s Korner doesn’t have a license to sell liquor, and that’s OK with them.

“I think that helps keep down the rowdiness,” Heuer said.

For food, the bar has Jack’s frozen pizzas, and snacks like chips.

The former garage area behind the bar is a bigger space, with several tables and a stage that Heuer and Allan Williamson built recently for the occasional live music and karaoke events.

As part of a two-year plan, they’ll eventually put the garage doors back in and create a patio in front of the building. The former garage area would become the main bar area. First, though, will come repairs like redoing the flooring in the former garage area and building a parking lot in the back and a rear entrance.

“Keep it like a cool, laid-back, neighborhood-vibe bar. We don’t want to change the aesthetic too much but elevate it,” Mallory Williamson said.

“We want to be a little more involved and invest back into the business and give it a face-lift,” Allan Williamson added.

Cherith Heuer said the changes will build on the neighborhood feel of the bar.

“We thought like a community center almost because there’s so much here for the community that we want to be able to accommodate that better.”