Longtime restaurateur to bring new concept to Cherapa Place

Feb. 20, 2025

A dining industry veteran is opening a restaurant focused on South Dakota-inspired dishes in downtown Sioux Falls.

Devon Giesen and his wife, Ashley, are opening Rivage Oak Kitchen in the first-floor restaurant space inside the original office building at Cherapa Place.

Ode to Food and Drinks, which will hold its final meal in the space on Saturday, is moving to a different downtown location that’s being finalized.

For Giesen, the space represents the chance to open a restaurant in a place where he has hoped to serve guests for years. He and Ashley also own Invictus Pizza Kitchen, which opened at 3901 W. 49th St. in late 2023.

“I was in Ode having a meeting, and as I was leaving, (building co-owner) Anne (Haber) happened to be in the entryway, and that’s how we got to talking about the potential of moving into the space,” Giesen said. “The building is beautiful. The patio is beautiful. I love everything about the space.”

“Rivage” is meant to reflect how the building sits at the edge of the Big Sioux River, while “oak” is meant as a reference to the forest. Rivage Oak plans to focus on a menu inspired by dishes with South Dakota ties, including pheasant, walleye and bison.

“We want that cottage feeling,” Giesen said. “It’ll be a decent remodel. We’re going to freshen up the place a little bit. It’s going to be a warm, cottage-type feeling with some darker wood, a little more elevated stone on some of the walls.”

The restaurant will start with serving lunch and dinner but plans to expand to breakfast. It won’t be an overly large menu — think front and back of a page, he said.

“We’re going to try to use locally sourced bread like Breadico and some of the meat lockers in town and work with some of the breweries in South Dakota,” Giesen said.

“So that nice, upscale, comfort food at a nice price point, where hopefully anybody can come and enjoy a meal there, but it’ll be a very good spot for date nights. It’s going to be something I think not a lot of restaurants around here offer when it comes to South Dakota dishes.”

The plan is to change the shape of the bar area but otherwise leave the layout the same and later expand the patio.

“It’s a phenomenal patio,” Giesen said. “Not disrespecting anybody, but I think it was underused drastically where it is.”

In addition to Invictus, Giesen spent much of his career with Granite City Food & Brewery and helped prepare The Tavern Grill for opening in Sioux Falls.

The hope is to start construction soon and be ready to open Rivage Oak Kitchen by July.

“With a beautiful new campus, we’re really excited to breathe new energy into the space,” said Anne Haber, co-owner of building developer Pendar Properties. “These are experienced restauranteurs with a strong concept. It’s time, and we think our tenants are going to be really excited about this.”

It’s the second new restaurant announced this year at Cherapa Place. Breadico Cafe is scheduled to open in the coming months in the adjacent Bancorp Building.

Breadico to open downtown cafe

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