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Feb. 18, 2019

Visitors to Falls Park will be able to enjoy ice cream, sandwiches and soup from Stensland Family Farms, possibly as soon as the beginning of May.

The business is making plans to operate the cafe on the east side of the park once a contract with the city of Sioux Falls is official. A five-year contract with the previous operator of Falls Overlook Cafe expired, and the company did not submit another proposal.

“It will be sort of a mini-version of our ice cream store,” said Leah Moller, a family owner who manages the retail operations and marketing for the farm near Larchwood, Iowa. “The focus will be on ice cream. That’s our thing.”

The menu also will include lunch items, snacks and grab-and-go meals, Moller said. Fans of the original location near The Empire Mall don’t have to worry, though. “The 41st Street store isn’t going anywhere.”

The plan for Falls Park is to open at 11 a.m. daily and have extended hours into the evening when the cafe isn’t booked for private events. Moller said she’s already taking reservations.

“I’m not in the least bit worried” that the contract won’t be approved, she said.

The park board will consider the agreement with Stensland at its meeting Wednesday, and the City Council also has to approve it.

Moller hopes to start setting up in mid-April in the building, a former hydroelectric plant from the early 1900s.

It will continue to be called Falls Overlook Cafe, and Moller said she’ll market it with the tagline “By Stensland Family Farms.”