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A Food Scene Grows in Sioux Falls, S.D.

The pastry chef Chris Hanmer opened his French bakery, C. H. Patisserie, in May 2013.Credit...David Eggen for The New York Times

A city where chain restaurants rule when it comes to going out, Sioux Falls, S.D., has never been known for impressive dining. The cold winters and the three-tiered waterfall that inspired its name, yes, but not the food. Now, that’s finally changing: In recent years, locals as well as transplants have opened noteworthy restaurants, cafes and bakeries that are giving this Midwest metropolis of about 166,000 a newfound culinary fame.

Most of the growth is in the 10-block downtown, where Phillips Avenue is the main drag. Visiting these new places has become something of a sport. “The people here are suddenly talking about the ones they’ve tried and what they’re going to check out next,” said Cory Myers, 34, a local food blogger.

Inklings of an epicurean trend in this city of about 660 dining establishments started almost a decade ago with the Middle Eastern fast-food place Sanaa’s Gourmet Mediterranean (sanaacooks.com/restaurant). Given the dearth of non-chain and ethnic restaurants at the time, its owner and chef, Sanaa Abourezk, now 57, was something of a renegade. The certified nutritionist, born in Damascus, Syria, moved to the city after meeting her husband, the former Democratic senator from South Dakota, James Abourezk, while both were living in Washington. Her casual space grew out of the difficulty she had in adjusting to small-town life. “I cried for six months before I decided to combine my love for cooking and interest in health,” she said.

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Walking past C. H. Patisserie.Credit...David Eggen for The New York Times

Situated in a former railroad warehouse downtown, Sanaa’s has seats for 80 diners, golden yellow walls adorned with Middle Eastern art and a sky-blue ceiling with antique lamps. Ms. Abourezk makes her extensive range of dishes daily, including gluten-free and regular pita bread and fatayer, a type of Eastern Mediterranean rice and quinoa calzone with fillings like feta cheese and olives or ground beef.

Marriage to a South Dakota native also brought the pastry chef Chris Hanmer, 36, to the city. He opened his French bakery, C. H. Patisserie (chpastries.com), in May 2013. Mr. Hanmer, who was the winner in the second season of Bravo’s “Top Chef Just Desserts” in 2011, met his wife, Caryn, while both were living in Las Vegas. Visiting her family, he was taken with Sioux Falls’s charm. “Since there wasn’t an upscale patisserie in town, I sensed an opportunity,” he said.

Patrons of his 2,000-square-foot store are greeted by a glass case brimming with petits gâteaux, small cakes, in flavors such as milk chocolate mousse and peanut butter caramel, and eight kinds of macarons (he sells 300 to 600 a day).

Just across the street from C. H., the choices switch from sweet to savory at the M. B. Haskett deli (mbhaskett.com), in a former brothel, that’s a mainstay with the lunch crowd. The owner, Michael Haskett, 34, who grew up in Sioux Falls and studied at the Culinary Institute of America in New York, uses premium ingredients in his sandwiches and salads from nearby purveyors, eggs from his own farm and bread from a local artisanal company.

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Michael Haskett, the owner of the M. B. Haskett deli.Credit...David Eggen for The New York Times

On Friday and Saturday nights, he cooks a three-course, $26 dinner with the cuisine changing weekly. On a recent weekend it was Indian dishes, which included lentil samosas, chicken curry with stewed chickpeas and a cardamom-spiced pumpkin cake.

A few blocks away, The Market (themarketonphillips.com), a restaurant, bar and specialty grocer, is also known for its themed dinners, but the focus is on its 400 kinds of wine. Laurel Lather, 56, who owns the exposed-brick, wood-beamed space with her husband, Doug, 55, cooks a four-course meal that she pairs with labels from a different winemaker each dinner.

Chic restaurants are also infusing a shot of energy into the once drab after-dark scene. Parker’s Bistro (parkersbistro.net), for example, serves seasonal American cuisine in a 100-seat long and narrow dining room with white tablecloths and candles. Stacy Newcomb-Weiland, the 54-year-old owner, remembers a neglected downtown when she visited in her youth from the nearby town of Madison. Some of its renewed vibrancy now comes from her kitchen, which turns out eclectic dishes like egg rolls filled with lump crab meat, cilantro and Thai chiles or prosciutto- and date-stuffed quail with bulgur mushroom pilaf.

The city’s gastronomic transformation continued in May when David Napolitano, 27, the owner of the bread company Breadico (breadico.com), opened his first storefront after baking loaves in his parents’ garage for more than a year. (M. B. Haskett is among his customers.) The 900-square-foot space has a kitchen with a pass-through window where customers can watch 14 varieties of bread like baguettes, raisin loaves and rosemary walnut being baked, and even sample them warm, just out of the oven.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section TR, Page 11 of the New York edition with the headline: There’s a Buzz at the Tables in One Midwest City. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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