May 28, 2026

A newly retired teacher is putting her practice business plan to work.

Janelle Whempner, who most recently taught culinary arts classes at Career and Technical Education Academy, has always had her students write a business plan for a bakery.

“I did my own assignment, so I wrote a business plan a couple years ago to do more of like a cooking-class place,” Whempner said. “This is what I really wanted to do because I love teaching cooking.”

She followed through on that as a side gig, teaching a few classes out of the Restaurant Design Equipment & Supply kitchen and then the event space at Hook & Ladder Kitchen & Bar on West 12th Street.

So when the restaurant owners wanted to do something with the neighboring former Dunn Brothers Coffee building at the Firehouse 42 development, they reached out to Whempner to see if she’d be interested in leasing the space as a cooking classroom.

Her initial thought was it was too soon – she wasn’t planning to retire until 2028. “I thought this opportunity is not going to be here in two years. So we — my husband, Bill, and I — talked about it many, many nights, about all the details, and we reformulated our plan for the space because I thought I don’t think I can make a go of it doing just classes in here, so now it’s turned into like a little cafe, or a little light-fare bistro, if you will.”

Zest Social House, with the tagline of “Sip, Scoop and Learn,” will be the result of all that planning. The cafe will craft espresso drinks with coffee beans from Sioux City roaster Council Oak Supply, serve ice cream — including from a local creamery and a unique New Zealand frozen treat — and offer occasional cooking classes and hands-on events like a small office Christmas party with people making something like fresh pasta or decorating cookies.

Whempner also is teaming up with her neighbors who created Blitz, an energy drink product, to serve those beverages in the cafe.

“And then for food, we want to do something different,” she said. “We’re going to do open-face toast sandwiches and have some sweet and some savory,” with five options for each. The bread will be baked on-site.

Whempner has hired some of her former students, and they’ll be making baked goods like brownies and sweet rolls.

Farm Life Creamery in Ethan will provide the ice cream and the milk used in coffee drinks. The dipping case will hold eight flavors, she said.

Zest Social House will be the first in Sioux Falls to serve a frozen treat that’s popular in New Zealand, she said. A Little Jem Elite blender will be used to make real fruit ice cream treats that can be served in cones or cups.

“Into this cone,” she said, pointing to a company fact sheet, “you scoop two scoops of vanilla ice cream, and then you add frozen fresh fruit, and then it spins it out into a cone (or cup). … It’s delicious and fresh with that fresh fruit in there.”

Zest Social House likely will open as early as 6 a.m. for the coffee drinkers and close as late as 9 or 10 p.m. in the summertime for the fans of ice cream. It will be open daily to provide consistency for customers, Whempner said.

She also has applied for a beer and wine license.

“My thought is that maybe during the winter months, ice cream will slow down, and then at night we could do little classes,” serving alcohol during those events. Zest Social House also could be a nice end to a night out for couples, she said.

“Maybe it’s like, people go downtown for dinner, and they head back this way. Maybe they do a last stop. We could do fun desserts and a little glass of wine or affogato or something like that.”

The business will have a small retail area with products like local honey and jam, cookbooks and “little kitcheny stuff,” Whempner said.

The space will hold about 35 customers, and there’s a small outdoor patio too.

Remodeling work has been underway for about a month. A small meeting room was removed to make the kitchen larger. The space will be brighter with cream colored walls, pink lampshades, cobalt blue tile, murals and artwork.

“I wanted it to just have good energy and feel fun when you walked in,” Whempner said.

Zest Social House at 8220 W. 12th St. likely will open in mid-to-late June.