Rapid City's Newest Tables Are in Buildings You Already Know

Most of Rapid City's food news this fall has happened at familiar addresses. A Colorado hot pot group took over the former Denny's on North LaCrosse Street. A gluten-free bakery left Main Street for the old Fuddruckers at Uptown Rapid. A brewery owner is turning a back room his beer production outgrew into a pizza shop. The newcomers didn't need new construction. They needed kitchens, parking and square footage, and they found them in buildings people have been driving past for years.

That changes how to read the city's new-restaurant list. Most of the change from this summer and fall is on the north side near I-90 and on the south side along Fifth Street, with only a little of it downtown. The addresses below tell the story about as well as the menus do.

The former Denny's at 2206 N. LaCrosse St.

Hot Pot Spot held its grand opening on September 7, 2026, in the building that used to be the Denny's at 2206 N. LaCrosse St. The building that served pancakes now holds an all-you-can-eat tabletop hot pot restaurant. Each table cooks its own meal in broth, and the restaurant offers 11 broths, nine prime-meat choices and a dipping-sauce bar with more than 20 components.

The broths cover a lot of ground. A trade report from Buffet Authority lists a tonkotsu simmered for 12 hours, a Sichuan mala and a Vietnamese canh chua. The meats include ribeye, short rib, brisket, lamb shoulder and pork belly, plus seafood, tofu, mushrooms and noodles.

Timing affects what you pay. As of that October 2, 2026 report, adult weekday lunch is $27.99 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and dinner is $33.99. That makes a weekday lunch visit $6 cheaper than the same table after 3 p.m. The report doesn't list a weekend lunch price. The restaurant is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The operator's website lists Rapid City with three Colorado locations in Thornton, Fort Collins and Longmont. The group traces back to the Thornton restaurant, which opened in March 2023. Rapid City is the only location outside Colorado, and the group chose a building that was already set up as a restaurant, right off the interstate.

The former Fuddruckers at Uptown Rapid

The second move is local. Nanna's Cafe and Bread Co. opened on Main Street in 2024 and built a following for gluten-free baking downtown. Owners Joanna and Tyrell Jones then moved the business into the former Fuddruckers near the Uptown Rapid food court. The business now goes by Nanna's House, at 2200 N. Maple Ave. On August 28, 2026, the Rapid City Business Journal reported that it had officially opened as a dedicated gluten-free restaurant, bakery and kids area.

The Rapid City Journal's story on the relocation gave the reasons plainly. The mall space came with a bigger kitchen with more room for cooking and food storage, plenty of seating, and free parking outside. Joanna Jones told the paper that limited parking downtown had been a common complaint from customers since the Main Street opening.

"We're really excited to offer this gigantic safe space for the allergen-friendly community." — Joanna Jones, to the Rapid City Journal

The menu shows what the bigger room made possible. When the move was announced, Jones said she hoped to add dinner items such as chicken strips and onion rings once she had more staff. By the August opening, both were on the menu. The Business Journal's list also includes all-day breakfast, pizzas, a Philly cheesesteak, Buffalo chicken and chicken parmesan sandwiches, a turkey bacon melt, burgers including bison, cheese curds, salads, breads and desserts, and every item can be ordered dairy-free.

The hours grew with the space. The earlier Journal story described Wednesday-through-Sunday hours from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The later Business Journal report said regular hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. would begin September 1, with an early-bird breakfast menu under $10. Breakfast now starts four hours earlier than the old schedule allowed. Hours change, so check Nanna's website before a weekday breakfast run.

Jones told the Journal that cinnamon rolls are the item she can never keep in stock, even though she makes hundreds every week, and the honey white bread comes close.

The back room on Fifth Street

The third move is still coming, and it started in Hill City. Jason Kingsbury founded Cohort Craft Brewery in 2020 and opened it on the south side of Rapid City in April 2021, when, he said, the area had relatively little development around it. Last year he bought the former Miner Brewing Co. property outside Hill City and opened Cohort Craft Brewery Black Hills.

Beer production moved to the larger Hill City property, which left about 2,000 square feet open in the back of the original Fifth Street building. On October 2, 2026, the Business Journal reported that Kingsbury plans to fill that space with Fifth Street Pizza. He talked about the project on the Rapid City Business Journal podcast with hosts Shiloh Francis and Murdoc and joked about getting a second chance at building out a space. "The second time I do it, I'll be perfect," Kingsbury said. "Well, that's not true, but it's closer."

The article doesn't give an opening date, a menu or a street number beyond the brewery's original Fifth Street location. For now, this is a pizza shop planned for a room that brewing tanks used to fill. Cohort's growth in Hill City is the reason Rapid City's south side is getting a new kitchen.

Where the room came from

Here is the pattern at each address, using what the sources report as of early October 2026.

The three food moves had a lot of room to work with. A full-service former Denny's, a mall restaurant with a food court next door and a parking lot outside, and a 2,000-square-foot back room all gave their new tenants space that a downtown storefront usually can't. The openings that stayed small are the next part of the story.

Small rooms, close to downtown

Not every opening this year needed a big building. The Wolf & Lion, founded by Hope Perini, sells handcrafted loose-leaf tea, books, tea wares, ritual goods and unusual curiosities from a 240-square-foot shop at 1800 Elm Ave. Its first permanent location held a grand opening on Saturday, October 3, along with a Wild & Wyrd Market. That's less than an eighth of the space Fifth Street Pizza is getting.

Downtown, Leones' Creamery opened a scoop shop at 412 St. Joseph St. in June. The small-batch ice cream business was founded in Spearfish, and it keeps eight changing flavors along with a vegan option.

The difference comes down to what each business needs. Ice cream and loose-leaf tea fit in a small room. A tabletop hot pot service, a scratch bakery making hundreds of cinnamon rolls a week, and a pizza kitchen don't. In Rapid City this year, the businesses that needed a big kitchen found one in a building someone else had left.

A fall dining loop, by side of town

Taken together, the addresses make an easy route for an evening or a Saturday:

• North side, breakfast or lunch: Nanna's House at Uptown Rapid, with breakfast all day and free parking.
• North side, weekday lunch: Hot Pot Spot on North LaCrosse, where lunch is $27.99 until 3 p.m. as of the October 2 report.
• Elm Avenue, browsing: The Wolf & Lion for tea and books.
• Downtown, dessert: Leones' Creamery on St. Joseph Street.
• South side, coming later: Fifth Street Pizza at Cohort's original location, with no date announced as of early October.

When a building near you changes hands, its next tenant usually says something about the block around it. Amanda Carlin keeps track of those changes across the Black Hills, from Cohort's move into the old Miner Brewing property near Hill City to the new kitchens on Rapid City's north side. If you're wondering what a familiar address in your part of town could become, or what your own property might be worth, reach out to Black Hills Southern Realty and Work With Amanda.