A summer staple frozen in time

Yahoo

4 days ago

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – It seems like these days there's always a new restaurant opening or building going up in Sioux Falls, but there are still many places you can find some old-school charm that brings you back to the earlier days of the city.
That includes one staple that's believed to be the oldest operating restaurant in the city.
B&G Milky Way is a Sioux Falls summer staple for kids looking for their favorite sweet treat.
'Chocolate vanilla twist with chocolate sauce,' Pierce, a young customer, said.
'I order a Oreo avalanche,' Hadley, a young customer said.
'I order a orange slush whip,' Rowan, a young customer said.
The adults like the treats too, as well as the memories.
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'We just love it. My dad used to come a lot and we've just kind of kept up the tradition since he's passed away,' customer Sandy Krier said.
'The early days coming and we'd always get strawberry ice cream cones and that was kind of the tradition. So, that's what I still get,' customer Barb Bowden said.
The B&G Milky Way on West 12th Street has been serving ice cream and smiles for over 70 years.
'I believe it was built in 1953 and, at that time, this was a gravel road out front and there was no Sioux Falls to the west of us,' owner Bruce Bettmeng said. 'So, as Sioux Falls expanded, it just kind of surrounded it.'
Ray Starks, or Rambling Ray Starks as he was often known as, was the original owner of the building. He opened the walk-up ice cream business near his restaurant, Ray's Drive Inn, and named it Milky Way. His grand-daughter, Robyn Starks Holcomb, says she's heard many stories about both establishments through the years.
'The Drive Inn got to be a pretty busy, fun hangout and ice cream, ice cream is everybody's passion,' Starks Holcomb said. 'It's been a passion throughout our family, not because of the Milky Way but I think if ice cream could be a genetic trait, it runs in our family. So, yeah, I think it was just an addition to the Drive Inn and one more thing for the Sioux Falls community to enjoy.'
In the mid-60s, Starks sold the shop to Bertha and Guy Higgins, who added on the B&G to the name. In 1970, it was sold to Gerry and Pat Bruget who operated the Milky Way until 1993 when Bruce Bettmeng and his wife took over.
'But it's the original building. Everything is the original – original windows, building. I did have to replace the roof a couple times but everything else is the original,' Bettmeng said.
Bettmeng says keeping the original, old-fashioned feeling here has been important for him.
'Most of our product is the same too,' Bettmeng said. 'We've added a few over the years but we still have the original strawberry shakes, the footlongs which have been here for over 70 years.'
And that's true for all of the B&G Milky Way locations. Bettmeng and his wife were the ones who started franchising the business. Now there are 10 total stores including the newest one in Mitchell, which we visited while it was still under renovation. It's the first B&G outside of the Sioux Falls area.
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'That's really kind of neat. It's kind of scary because the B&G Milky Way, it's a local store,' Bettmeng said. 'We don't advertise anywhere so if you're not from Sioux Falls you probably don't know us. But when we went to Mitchell, everybody knew who we were. And that really made a big impression on me and made me get more aggressive to maybe expanding to other cities.'
But no matter how far the Milky Way ends up reaching, you can count on the original to still be here.
'I don't like watching these old buildings, things that are a part of Sioux Falls — Bob's Burgers was one of them and it's gone now,' Bettmeng said. 'That's kind of a gut punch to Sioux Falls. So, I'd like to see this, I want to keep this going. It's part of Sioux Falls.'
A building frozen in time but still exciting the young, and young at heart, every summer.
'To think that my grandpa opened this building and that it still stands and that it's still popular, obviously the families that have taken it over and have grown it since have done all of the work,' Starks Holcomb said. 'And the fact that there are five Milky Ways in Sioux Falls now, of which we visit all of them frequently, but to visit this one just has kind of a special place in the heart.'
The first expansion of the Milky Way happened in 1976 when the Bruget's opened a second location on west 41st Street, which is also still in operation today.
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