UPDATE: I guess the neighbors are going to Not oppose the alcohol license now. Which is good, because I need a beer to wash down my boutique benny’s.

The proposed Bunker Coffee Shop at 9th and Grange has gone thru so many business proposals since it’s inception they really should honor the process by calling the place, ‘The Chameleon’;

Halbach also requested a conditional use permit for beer and wine — though it’s for brunch-related beverages as hours will be 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.

An outdoor beer and coffee bar is planned in the back on a vacant lot he also owns, designed for overflow seating because there’s indoor space for only about 20 guests.

So he wants to change it from a neighborhood coffee shop to a boutique brunch place? Okay. Or maybe a beer garden;

“So this will essentially allow us to send people to the outdoor beer and coffee bar to get a drink while they wait for a table and play yard games or hang out in the yard,” he said, estimating that area could hold up to 50 guests.

I have no issue with allowing them to have beer and wine, BUT, I also don’t live in the neighborhood. I can tell you my experience from having a pretty popular bar only a block from my house a few years ago, it can come with some extra noise but was a welcome addition, I was sad when it closed only to be replaced by another telephone booth casino.

I can tell you that people who live in Pettigrew and Cathedral neighborhoods are opposed to the alcohol request, mainly because Bunker House Coffee keeps changing what it originally proposed, from exterior/interior designs to taxpayer supported on-street parking and facade easements;

The project received a $95,000 facade easement grant from the city of Sioux Falls, and work to redo the brick is scheduled to start soon.

Interesting the facade now jumped $20K from what was originally asked for.

“The guts of the building are in really bad shape,” Halbach said.

The GUTS?! Just looking at the building you could tell it is a complete wreck. I am all for historic preservation and commend people who want to fix up older structures, but personally I would have bulldozed it and built a one-story building with roof patio that would have comparable historic architecture. Probably would have saved him a million bucks.

Hey, I get it, we all have our passions in life, but you can’t bring along the public in a concept that changes it’s colors every 5 minutes.

I think there will be some public blowback to the alcohol permit, but like the facade easement (to the former campaign treasurer of Councilor Curt Soehl), this will pass with flying colors.

Who wants a Mimosa?

12 Thoughts on “UPDATE: Proposed Bunker House Coffee Shop on Grange should be called ‘The Chameleon’

  1. D@ily Spin on April 28, 2023 at 9:13 am said:

    The whole concept sounds fishy. It’s a not so sophisticated way to steal a 95k + 20k TIF. There’s plenty of vacant commercial space along 12th for some sort of coffee/beer/casino/crack establishment.

  2. "Woodstock" on April 28, 2023 at 2:12 pm said:

    “This would be a good time for VSG to post Boy George’s ‘Chameleon’ song again, but since he has already done it two times in the last six months, he probably shouldn’t”…

  3. Gaye Wead on April 28, 2023 at 2:15 pm said:

    Well, it looks like we were just Rickrolled.

  4. "Woodstock" on April 28, 2023 at 3:47 pm said:

    “Say, is that Rick Ashley or Dusty’s hip cousin?”…

  5. "Woodstock" on April 28, 2023 at 4:22 pm said:

    “Say, on second thought, is anyone else in the mood for some DUA right now?”…. “I know I am”….. 🙂 #DuaDua

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFWv44Z4Jhk

  6. The Guy From Guernsey on April 29, 2023 at 11:08 am said:

    The resistance from the neighborhood against the Conditional Use variance for Wine and Beer is justified, especially as the proprietor has already evolved the business model to slide the camel’s nose into the tent (e.g. outdoor consumption “while waiting for a table”).
    Next up on the vacant portion of the lot (‘cuz a beer garden would be too ordinary for this crowd), pergolas, outdoor serving stations and trellises to create the boutique late afternoon/early evening drinking spot for the bougies in town.
    Are there plans for a fence or enclosure to control access to to an area of alcohol consumption?
    LOL! Who am I kidding. That is the extra $20K added to the facade easement payola.

  7. The Guy From Guernsey on April 29, 2023 at 11:18 am said:

    Can you imagine the fundraisers which Paulie can host for his PAC at the Pergolas on the Patio at the Perch?
    Of course the big question – will the Taupevillian contributors to Paulie’s PAC come to 100 S Grange Ave?

  8. A pint of lager, you say? on April 29, 2023 at 5:39 pm said:

    Just how many Machiavellians live in Taupevillian, because, no man is an island, just ask Gilligan.

    “Pergolas on the Patio at the Perch”, but what about Pina Coladas beneath the parapets?

    There was a time we knew our city. We knew the Spring, the Duluth appearance, the Summit, the Prairie, the Grange, the Lake, and even the West, which was then out done by a Western. But overtime, the names have taken on new nomenclatures, where the streets do not tell us where we have arrived, but rather how some have arrived. I miss the simpler times when a beer at 9th and Grange was a beer, but with such new fancy will even a lager be enough, or will we be forced to consume a draft of import-ance amongst this new found identity of chameleon decadence?

  9. anominous on April 29, 2023 at 10:49 pm said:

    how is this place ada compliant

  10. l3wis on April 30, 2023 at 4:06 am said:

    I kind of wondered the same thing. Maybe historic preservation does NOT require it?????

  11. scott on April 30, 2023 at 2:39 pm said:

    do they plan on buying the rest of the block and demolishing houses? they seem to be missing on the renderings.

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