605 STOPS BY | GARDEN OF EAT’N

GARDEN OF EAT’N IS OPEN MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY 11 A.M. - 4 P.M.

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According to owner and manager Lynn Short, the story behind Garden of Eat’n in Canton is not a very exciting one. “I just needed a job,” she simply stated as 605 sat with her on a late Thursday morning. “It was a church in the very beginning when it was built in 1889.” Then, Short says, in the early ‘20s it was a gas station until the late ‘70s. It sat empty until 1982, when she saw the opportunity to open a restaurant in the location. “It was a mess. A third of the floor was dirt, a third of the floor was concrete, and a third was wood,” recalled Short. Another problem? She entered the situation without a game plan. Should they lean into the gas station motif or the church? Short says fate took the wheel when country churches in the area were closing or moving and held auctions.

“It was like it was meant to be because we went and we bought church pews and church décor,” she said.

Then they had to decide on a name.

“We first thought of The Ten Condiments, but we weren’t sure if it would click well,” said Short. “Then one day we thought of the Garden of Eat’n, and then the apples just started happening. Everything was just kind of an accident.”

Along with the move, the menu would also be risky. Short says she wanted to serve deli style sandwiches, and in the ‘80s it was almost unheard of.

“You gotta remember this was a long time ago, there weren’t any Subways. I mean, they hadn’t even invented Diet Coke then,” she laughed. “We’ve been here 37 years. It’s hard to believe.”

One of the most popular sandwiches has been the Taco Sub. The other most popular item, the daily soup special, was shockingly a hard sell as well when the restaurant first opened.

“It used to be that I couldn’t sell soup to save my soul,” said Short. “It was a farm community who wanted meat, potatoes, vegetables, and dessert. We started out with just chili, and then I started gradually adding this and that, and it became a big thing where soups caught on.”

Along with sandwiches and soups, the lunchtime spot serves a few Mexican food items, malts, ice cream, and fresh-baked goods, like homemade pie. The pie, as you could guess, also came to be by happenstance.

“I had an apple tree and I thought that I needed to get rid of all of the apples, so I started making pies,” said Short. “Then my apple tree fell down, but I was stuck because I’m pretty famous for my pie, so I had to keep making them.”

The seasonal business sees most year-round visitors from the courthouse, while the busiest time comes from those traveling on the highway and visitors to Newton Hills during the spring and summer months.

Looking back on Garden of Eat’n’s story, Short said earnestly, “I did have a business plan... but as I look back it was a joke.”

After tasting its delicious offerings, we’re not laughing.

SIOUX FALLS NATIVES JON OPPOLD AND HIS WIFE, KATY, USED TO WALK THEIR FRENCH BULLDOG, SUNNY, IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD BETWEEN AUGUSTANA UNIVERSITY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF SIOUX FALLS, AN AREA THEY LIVED IN FOR MANY YEARS. WHEN A FORMER LAUNDROMAT ON 26TH STREET AND MINNESOTA AVENUE BECAME VACANT, TURNING THE BUILDING INTO A NEIGHBORHOOD PIZZA JOINT WAS A NATURAL NEXT STEP FOR THE ENTREPRENEURIAL COUPLE.

“College students don’t always have a ton to do,” said Oppold. “We wanted to create a place for community here, where people could just come, hang out, and eat pizza.”

Oppold quit his job in marketing to open the pizzeria late last year, but he didn’t leave creative strategy behind when he entered the restaurant business full-time. Instead Oppold took inspiration from those walks with Sunny as a way to brand his new business—naming it Sunny’s Pizzeria—and using memed images of the dog to create a following on social media.

“It was just kind of a fun, quirky way to do things,” said Oppold.

E BBQ sauce, sharp cheddar, chicken, mushrooms, onions, jalapeños, and ranch drizzle.

E Buffalo sauce, pepperjack, macaroni, chicken, jalapeños, bread crumbs, and ranch drizzle.

E Alfredo, mozzarella, ham, bacon, jalapeños, pineapple, and sriracha drizzle.

E Sunny’s sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, pepperoni pizza rolls, and sriracha drizzle.

E Alfredo, mozzarella, sharp cheddar, hamburger, lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, and taco sauce drizzle.

E Whole-grain mustard, mozzarella, sausage, hamburger, and banana peppers.

But “jowl-dropping pizza” is more than just a good catchphrase for Sunny’s—it’s a descriptor Oppold says extends to the pizzas he and his staff serve on a daily basis.

Sunny’s specializes in thin-crust pizza that can be done and ready to serve in three minutes using a ventless oven. Pizzas are cooked to taste and made to order, giving customers the freedom to tweak the pizzeria’s house specialties or come up with their own creations.

But while customization is always a draw, patrons at Sunny’s don’t have to look much further than the joint’s specialty pizzas, or Sunny’s Faves, to find something out of the norm.

Options like The Augie Blues, Cougar Meat, and the Sodak Chicken dot the menu, pointing both to Oppold’s love for the local and penchant for the unique. All three of the previous pizzas use a different sauce (alfredo, Sunny’s Sauce, and buffalo sauce, respectively), and a variety of other ingredients—everything from jalapeños and bread crumbs to mushrooms and celery—to serve up something that’s a far cry from a traditional pepperoni and cheese.

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“We started off with these specialty pizzas that are our own recipes and expanded from there,” said Oppold. “Some of people’s favorites so far have been our bacon cheeseburger pizza with pickles and our pepperoni pizza with pepperoni pizza rolls on it instead of just pepperoni slices.”

Oppold’s love for local staples like the two colleges Sunny’s is situated between, doesn’t just stop at pizza names, though. Pretty much everything—down to the Stensland Family Farms cheese piled on top of each pie—is homegrown.

“We have four taps in here,” said Oppold, “and all the kegs are brewed in Sioux Falls. This is a small place, and as a Sioux Falls native it was important to me to have that community feel within the space. We’re doing all local as much as we can.”

And what’s more local than neighborhood-wide trivia nights, college game watch parties, or speed puzzle contests? Not much. Sunny’s plans to do it all and more to cater to not only their college student audience, but also anyone who simply wants to go someplace different, try something new, and meet people who live across the street or even across town.

“A big part of Sunny’s isn’t just the pizza, it’s bringing people in and having fun events that give them a chance to hang out,” said Oppold. “We’re really just about keeping it simple here. We’re a neighborhood pizza place.”

Three keynote speakers & 20 dynamic sessions are offered. The conference will feature inspirational addresses from Mary Anne Carter, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts; Torrie Allen, President and CEO of Arts Midwest; Lori Pourier, President and CEO of First People’s Fund, and Lori L. Jacobwith, Fundraising Culture Change Expert & Master Storyteller with Ignited Fundraising.

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