July 8, 2021

The newest neighborhood restaurant in southeast Sioux Falls is getting ready to open next week.

Roundhouse Brew Pub is in a retail center on 69th Street east of Cliff Avenue and owned by a group of friends that includes seven local owners.

Jason Walsh is one of them.

“I think it’s great, but I’m biased,” he said, adding that as people have come in to help with the opening, “everybody’s loved it.”

The restaurant seats about 70 people and includes a dozen 65-inch televisions for watching sports, “so you’ll see it covers every viewing angle,” Walsh said.

There are some finishing decorative touches yet to be installed, including a wall wrap of a large, old train with a big smokestack and a large metal sign with the logo.

But otherwise, it’s largely ready to go.

The plan is to do invite-only service through the weekend, assess how things are going and decide when to open the doors — potentially as soon as Monday, Walsh said.

“If we don’t feel the staff is ready, we’ll practice more,” he said.

The menu is being finalized and will include appetizers, salads, burgers, wraps and pizza.

“We’re trying not to be everything to everybody, but we’re trying to incorporate families during the day and sports stuff,” Walsh said. “I let the cook run with that. He designed all the food.”

Homemade onion rings likely will become one of the specialties, he added.

“We just want to appeal to the masses in the neighborhood.”

There will be 16 beers on tap, including nine from Roundhouse Brewery in Nisswa, Minn., which Walsh also co-owns. The brewery was started in nearby Brainerd on the site of an old roundhouse for fixing trains.

The others are more traditional options, including a guest tap, which first will go to Ben’s Brewing Co. in Yankton for a strawberry blonde ale, plus a tap for 1919 Classic American Draft Root Beer.

There also will be patio seating with about 12 tables and more amenities added in the spring, including a fire pit.

Hours are 11 a.m. to midnight daily, and they’re considering a 2 a.m. close Friday and Saturday. If a major sporting event is on TV, the plan will be to stay open until it ends.

“We just want to be a family-friendly, sports-watching place with craft beer, good food and good service,” Walsh said.