Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [193]
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Fans of diner food will think they’ve entered heaven the moment they walk into this place and sniff bacon sizzling and burgers grilling. A tiny diner with a curvy counter and a mere dozen seats, all with a view of the grill, Bob’s specializes in plentiful hash-house breakfasts, burger baskets, broasted chicken, fried shrimp, and slabs of ribs.
If your life is dull and you need a challenge, may we suggest the Megabob? On a blackboard behind the counter, the names of those who have tried and succeeded are written in chalk…just waiting to be erased by a newer, faster gun in town. What is the Megabob Challenge, you ask? Eat a three-quarter-pound hamburger, three-quarters of a pound of French fries, and a cookie, plus drink a large bottle of soda pop faster than anyone else and you get it free. How good are the hamburgers? Proprietor Bob Weiland sent us a copy of his customer comment book, which included these reviews: “Best burger between Seattle and Chicago”…“Oh, boy, that was delicious!!!”…“It’s the bomb!”…“The best reason to be in S. Dakota.”
Although it is a minuscule space, Bob’s specializes in cooking vast amounts of food for big parties, and will deliver in the Sioux Falls area. The menu includes such mega-listings as a ninety-piece order of broasted chicken, a whole broasted turkey, and slabs of ribs by the dozen.
Edgar’s
At Pioneer Drug
Business Route 29
605–356–3336
Elk Point, SD 57025
L | $
Soda jerking is a fine art at Edgar’s. Have a seat on one of the steel-banded counter stools and watch a soda being made. This is no haphazard process. First, syrup and a little ice cream are smooshed together at the bottom of the deep vase-shaped glass to form a kind of sweet-shop roux; next, soda is squirted in and mixed vigorously; penultimately, a globe of ice cream is gingerly floated on top; finally, a crown of whipped cream is applied and, to that, a single cherry. It’s a beautiful sight, and while much of the soda will drip and spill down the sides of the glass as soon as it is touched by a spoon, one cannot help but admire the confectionery perfectionism.
The same high standards apply to tulip sundaes, malts, and shakes, and a long roster of more elaborate daring delights that range from the relatively familiar turtle sundae (vanilla ice cream with hot caramel, chocolate syrup, and pecans) to the Rocket, a vertical banana split that the menu promises “will send you for a blast!”
With its pink-and-white tin ceiling, quartet of creaky wood booths, and steel rod chairs and scattering of tables, Edgar’s is an absolutely charming little place inside the Pioneer Drug store on the main street of Elk Point. Its nucleus is a soda fountain that was first installed in Schmiedt Drug in Centerville in 1906. In the 1960s, the old marble fountain was removed and put into storage. It was only recently discovered by Edgar Schmiedt’s granddaughter, Barb Wurtz. Barb brought it to Elk Point where it is once again part of a pharmacy (run by Barb’s pharmacist husband, Kevin) and general store.
The back of Edgar’s menu is a marvelous page from soda-fountain history that features practical how-to articles taken from the 1906 Standard Manual of Soda and Other Beverages. Among the suggestions are that a soda fountain attendant “should never display soiled towels or dirty sponges,” “should never stand watching the patrons drinking,” and “should study each customer’s desire and endeavor to remember the particular way in which he likes his drinks mixed and served.” The year all this was written, the Centerville Journal declared Edgar’s soda fountain one of the finest in the state. Over a century later, it is once again.
Hamburger Inn
1111/2 E. 10th St.
605–332–5412
Sioux Falls, SD
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Mel “Nels” Nelson and his wife, Bev, are no longer at the helm of this charming Depression-era twelve-stool diner; and for several weeks early in 2006 it was closed altogether. But hail Jason Bensen and Kelly Torberson, who took over and have promised to keep the Sioux Falls hamburger landmark running for at least