SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The Sioux Falls Cathedral Historic District is known for beautiful, old houses.
That charm is what led Jessica Steinstra’s family to the neighborhood about a year and a half ago.
“We love it. It’s such a great place to be at. Bit of a hidden gem, I think, in Sioux Falls,” Stienstra said.
But now there’s something else adding to the area.
It’s called Perch, a restaurant selling breakfast food, coffees, and more.
“My six-year-old has dubbed them having the best hot chocolate in Sioux Falls, so if you like hot chocolate I highly recommend,” Stienstra said.
“We have house-made cinnamon rolls and biscuits that get made daily. Yeah, just trying to create something unique and fresh and trying to source as many locally sourced ingredients as we can,” Halbach said.
Alex Halbach is one of the owners of Perch.
The business opened earlier this summer at the corner of 9th and Grange.
It’s quickly become a new spot for Kristen Jacobson and her husband.
“We love the aesthetic and the looks of the place already, as soon as we came and tried it for the first time,” Jacobson said.
As the restaurant bustles with staff and customers on the main level, the upper level of the building is quieter.
It’s the home base for Halbach, Szwarc Law firm, where Halbach is a partner.
“Our attorneys and staff can reserve a desk for the day if they want to work here, reserve a conference room, but otherwise all of our employees work fully remote from home,” Halbach said.
Halbach says the building dates back to the early 1900s and served as a grocery store for decades.
It was later rented as apartments.
“I worked downtown on Phillips Avenue and would drive by this building year after year, time after time, and always thought, ‘Oh, that’s such a unique little structure,’ and I always thought it would be a cute little coffee shop or restaurant,” Halbach said.
He didn’t waste any time when it came up for sale.
“This is actually one of the few properties I’ve owned that I didn’t step into until after I owned it,” Halbach said.
The building was in rough shape.
“A lot of the structural supports for the building were starting to deteriorate pretty significantly, and really the building was kind of at risk of collapsing into itself,” Halbach said.
It took lots of work to get the building back in business.
“We ended up really kind of taking the building all the way down to the core. At one point in time you could see the basement all the way to the roof,” Halbach said.
Halbach is happy with how the project turned out.
“The community activation has been really cool to see. Lots of people come in and are meeting neighbors that they have seen before, but never really had a chance to interact with, and they’re interacting now down in the restaurant,” Halbach said.
And families like the Stienstras have a new place to enjoy a meal in the Cathedral area.
“It’s just nice to know that other people are investing in the neighborhood too,” Stienstra said.
Perch has 20 seats inside the restaurant, but there is also a patio.
The restaurant has an online wait system, so you can see if the restaurant is full from your phone.
