I received this e-mail from Carol recently:

“Okay, Dan, you need to know this. It’s important stuff. I tried to go to BJ’s for a late lunch today because Monday is knephla soup day. They were sold out of it at 4:00, and I was then informed that they sold out two hours after opening. How early does a girl gotta get outta bed to get some knephla soup in this town? Maybe you should do a “best soup in town” section in your blog. Then again, I’ll have to fight even harder for my knephla if word gets out.”

So, what’s your choice for the best soup in town?

There’s a story in Newsweek this week about the nationwide glut of retail space.

In the fourth quarter of 2007, the national retail vacancy rate rose for the 11th straight quarter to 7.5 percent. And another 34 million square feet of retail space will come online in 2008.

By the way, the story also quoted Judith Levine, author of “Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping.” One of the things she suggested is turning unneeded retail space into municipal swimming pools or community buildings.

So Red Truck and Lorne 961 — you both suggested putting the West RiverEducation Center in the Rushmore Mall — you might be onto something.

<><>The story suggests that developers have timed the economic cycle poorly. That got me wondering about Cabela’s and Rushmore Crossing, both set to open here in 2008.
<>Rapid City’s economy generally lags the rest of the country, and we are somewhat insulated because of all the federal money. But national retailers don’t know that. If they decide to tighten their belts — and several already are — new stores would be the first to go.

I suspect that the big new malls will still get enough retailers to be viable, but it will likely come at the expense of existing retail spaces at the mall, next to PetSmart, etc.

What do you all think?

Walter Albasi at the Corn Exchange pointed me to this website the other day. I guess it’s not new, but www.opentable.com, is new to me.

In fact, the Corn Exchange is the first South Dakota restaurant to be listed. The second is the Fireside Inn on Rimrock Road.

You can use the site to make online restaurant reservations. It’s pretty easy. I accidentally reserved a table for two at the Corn Exchange while playing around. Fortunately, I was able to cancel just as easily.

I haven’t been to the Corn Exchange or the Fireside in awhile. I might have to give both a try — just to try out www.opentable.com.

I thought I’d throw this out as another installment in the Rushmore Crossing saga.

I reported a while back that the Katz & Associates marketing site had substituted Penney’s for Dillard’s in the big anchor spot. It also had removed Barnes & Noble.

But now, developer Midland Atlantic has posted a press release that indicates Dillard’s and Barnes & Noble are back in — if they were ever out.

“The power center/lifestyle center hybrid will feature a combination of big-box users and specialty stores. About 600,000 square feet of the 900,000-square-foot project will be dedicated to power tenants. Tenants include Target, T.J. Maxx, Linens ‘N Things, Scheels Sporting Goods, Petco, Michaels and Gordmans. The lifestyle center, anchored by Dillard’s and situated at one end of the power center, will include Barnes & Noble, Old Navy and specialty stores. Target sits at the midpoint of the power center, and the project’s amenities will become more upscale as one approaches a lifestyle component.”

I decided to turn this into a separate thread, just in case you missed it. John was commenting on the Casa story, but I thought you might be interested in another new restaurant.

“Just ate at Buffalo Wings and Rings. It was busy at 1:00, only had a few open tables open. The staff was nice and service was pretty quick. Prices are about what you expect, more than you want to pay but not so much that you wont go back. I’d suggest it to everyone. Checked out the World Class Golf next door as well, looks very cool- i’ll try that out sometime soon too. The owner said the rumor is paulys pizza/subs is moving in the plaza soon.”

When I did the piece last week about the new Casa Réal restaurant, it took a while to figure out how to put the apostrophe above the e.

Now reporter Katie Brown, who took Spanish in school, points out that the Spanish word for royal is real, not réal. I’m pretty sure Jon Sharp, co-owner of the Casa, told me it had the apostrophe.

Believe it or not, I am taking a Spanish class. But I’m barely past the “como esta?” stage of the game.

Does anybody know for sure?

OK, there was no victory, and that wasn’t a surprise.

In Sunday’s final leg of the Heartland Entertainment Media Challenge, I raced my virtual NASCAR to an uninspired 15th place among 32 cars. I did pretty well among the humans in my heat, but the computer cars shot past me like I was standing still.

In the first week, sports writer Jim Holland had a rough time, finishing 14th among the 16 media outlets competing. In the second week, Editor Mikel LeFort kicked it in gear, and got us up to 6th. Where I kept us.

Here’s how we finished in the points:

1. X-Rock    56
2. MAX-FM    55
3. ViaMedia  50
4. The Point 49
5. B 102     48
6. Journal   38
7. KNBN      36
8. Midco     34
9. KOTA-TV   31
9. KEVN      31
11. KSKY      28
11. KOTA-AM   28
13. K-TALK    26
14. KSLT      25
15. KICK 104  22
16. Eagle     20

I don’t know how much money we raised for the Boys Club. Kevin is going to total up the dollar donations and let us know Tuesday who brought in the most money. By the way, a bunch of contractors kicked in money for the charities of their choice.

Here’s the column item I did on Casa Réal. (By the way, rsr, it’s four blocks south and across the street from the old Casa):

Casa Réal taking shape on Mount Rushmore Road

Fans of Casa Del Rey – and I can tell you there are lots of them — have been in mourning since the Mount Rushmore Road restaurant closed its doors in April 2006.

But soon the Casa will be back, sort of.

The name and location will be different. But the menu, the décor, the logo and much of the staff at the new Casa Réal will be very familiar to Casa Del Rey regulars.

Casa Réal co-owner Jon Sharp is the former manager of the Casa Del Rey. He and Norm Gary have formed GS Corp, and they have been working since October to turn the former Marble Club, 2315 Mount Rushmore Road, into Casa Réal.

(The name, by the way, means Royal House. Casa Del Rey was the House of the King.)

Yesterday I stopped in to take a look around. Right now the place looks more like a construction site than a restaurant, but by late March or early April it will open its doors as Casa Réal, Sharp said.

The new eatery will have sit-down dining for 120 people. The dining area will divided into several smaller dining areas, much like the Casa Del Rey was. There will also be a cantina and casino, but with beer and wine rather than liquor.
There will also be a banquet room. Future plans include outdoor dining, with an outdoor fireplace.

Black Hills Gold & Gift Store, Gary’s other business, will remain open at the front of the building. There will be an inside doorway into the restaurant.

After 32 years in business, Casa Del Ray’s owners accepted an all-too-tempting buyout offer from Walgreen’s. The drug store chain wanted the prime corner location at St. Patrick Street and Mount Rushmore Road. At the time, the owners were trying to shake off bad publicity when Legionnaire’s disease was traced to its decorative fountain.

Some of you have been asking about the new Casa Del Rey. I don’t have a lot of details, but I just got off the phone with Jon Sharp. I’m meeting him tomorrow afternoon.

He’s the guy that was manager of the old Casa, and he’s been working to open a new restaurant. He’s willing to meet me, so he must be close to opening.

By the way, the name will be Casa Real.

I’ll fill you in when I get more information.

Someone forwarded a copy of an e-mail that Roger Brooks of Destination Development, the company hired to help Rapid City brand itself, sent to the local branding team.

I thought I’d pass it along to see what we all think — even though we’re not on “the team.”

<>Hi Team:

Thanks for your assistance with the Rapid City effort. We have three final tag lines to be used as part of the external marketing efforts in bringing people to the Black Hills area. Which of the following three tag lines do you think would do the best job of encouraging people to visit the area? Some of you may think none of them has that much pull, but of the three, which one would most likely get you to perhaps “check it out” or would help promote Rapid City as a “must visit” destination (which, of course, the area is):

1• The Great American Road Trip

2• The Grand American Experience

3• A Real American Treasure

Thanks!

As an FYI, the three above plus “Big Monuments. Big Fun” and “Real. America. Up Close” rounded out the top five in our testing with more than 100 people, both locally, and across the country.

With regards to the local tag line (once people are in Rapid City) came down to two finalists:

• Days in the Hills, Nights in the City

• Light up the night!

We are inclined to go with “Light Up The Night!” over “Days in the Hills, Nights in the City” so that visitors will not make the assumption that there’s no reason to go downtown during the day, but instead to always head out to the hills. “Light up the night!” is simply an invitation to head downtown in the evening for dining and entertainment.

In testing the downtown plaza area the finalists were:• Lakota Square

• Fountain Plaza

We are inclined to go with Fountain Plaza for a couple of reasons:1. While most people outside the area had no idea what “Lakota” was or meant, they thought it sounded nice, thus it was a finalist.

2. On signs “Lakota Plaza” might be thought of as a mall, or corporate center.

3. “Fountain Plaza,” posted on signage, while certainly unoriginal, says exactly what it is and would probably do a better job of getting passers-by to stop. The name gives it away as a destination - a fountain plaza - which are primary lures in many successful and up-and-coming downtowns.

Comments? Ideas? Can you live with these? It’s not a done deal until our Rapid City team speaks.

All the best,

Roger Brooks