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Sept. 27, 2019

The Keg is returning to the east side of Sioux Falls with a second restaurant that will be on Arrowhead Parkway.

The longtime fried chicken restaurant is taking over the former Noodles & Company location in a retail center at 5216 E. Arrowhead Parkway.

“We’ve always wanted to be back on the east side,” said Vonnie Larsen, who owns the business with her husband, Neil. “We’re coming home.”

The Keg has a long history in Sioux Falls, and Neil’s parents bought it in 1979 when it was called Keg Beer Lounge at 10th Street and Bahnson Avenue. The Keg eventually moved to 26th Street and Sycamore Avenue and expanded with a second location in southwest Sioux Falls, but the restaurants closed in 2010 and 2012 when “hard times hit” in the midst of the Great Recession. After that, the Larsens served their chicken for a couple of years at The Lakes Resort on Lake Madison before returning the restaurant to Sioux Falls in 2015.

“When we came back to Sioux Falls, we felt the love,” Larsen said. “I kept my Facebook page for The Keg (after it closed in the city.) We were at 700 (likes), and in two weeks we were over 4,000. We were so humbled and grateful that Sioux Falls loved us so much.”

Larsen hopes the new location will be ready to open around Christmas or New Year’s Day. It will be similar to the west-side restaurant at 4211 W. 12th St. with seating for 75 to 80 people and a buffet from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. Hours likely will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the winter and until 10 p.m. in the summer.

“We’re just going to do the same thing – tables and booths and a casino, a bar up front – it’s beer and chicken.”

The key to the chicken is the care that’s taken in its preparation, she said.

“It’s all fresh, never frozen,” Larsen said. “It’s made to order. It’s marinated and goes in a wet-batter dip. It’s put in the fryer one piece at a time and shaken out one piece at a time.”

At the height of operations, The Keg had a total of 43 fryers, but Larsen said they’re happy to have less overhead with a smaller location.

While the couple is still involved in the business – Larsen describes she and Neil as “part-timers” who work three or four days a week, commuting from their Lake Madison home – their three daughters eventually will take over the business. Casie Scott and Becky Mammenga have been involved for years, and Bobbi Jo Larsen will return to operations full time with the new location.

“They’re the ones that are going to be moving this along,” Larsen said. “They all grew up in The Keg.”

The family’s 40-year history of shepherding The Keg will continue, growing at a smaller scale.

“We like to be that little place,” Larsen said. “Customers would say something about (going back to) the 10th Street location; we don’t want to go back that far! I think what we’re doing now is just perfect.”