Farm Fresh Food at The Range

Creating a restaurant that offers fantastic food, great service, and a unique and comfortable setting is a difficult task. The Range Kitchen & Cocktails has managed to accomplish all of this. The Range offers American-style dishes made with premium ingredients and grass fed, cage-free meat. They also have a friendly staff with a community-centered focus and great local beers and fresh cocktails.

The Range just relocated to a larger space across the street and will now be connected to a new club venue called 1202 next door. 1202 is currently being renovated and will be open in early December. The new Range still has the same barnyard feel with their colored wood panels and the unique caged in “chicken coup” dining area, but now they just have a lot more space to accommodate customers. With all The Range has to offer, it’s a good thing they are making room for more people because they’re going to need it.

I was thrilled to finally be eating here since it has been on my list of places to try for some time. I was lucky enough to try some of the most raved about dishes on the menu: the grilled cheese with the house made potato chips, the LGBT burger,  the body builder salad, the fried chicken strips with sweet potato fries, and for a sweet treat, the whiskey bread pudding.  All of these dishes were delicious, well-proportioned, and fairly priced. One of the best dishes, however, was the Body Builder Salad. When I asked owner, David Schiffman, what this hearty salad made with greens, cabbage, walnuts, chick peas, golden raisins, chopped egg, cranberries, and tomatoes, he said he wanted to include a salad on the menu that had something other than just lettuce in every bite. They succeeded. This is a serious salad and a delicious one too.

I love to eat, but I hate to cook, so I am always impressed by little unique twists that restaurants create on basic dishes. At the Range, they do this with their chicken strips that they marinate in buttermilk and then coat in their house made blend of potato chips. Who would have thought to roll chicken in potato chips! Is this genius, or is it just me? I highly recommend them.

We finished the meal off with Whiskey Bread Pudding. I am a bit of a bread pudding snob. It has to be sweet enough and moist enough. This was some of the best bread pudding I’ve had, and I would gladly go back for more!

The Range Kitchen & Cocktails was founded by David Schiffman, Robert Lane and Vania Raitano (DVR Group), who also owns Whiskey Girl. Other Schiffman projects include: The Tipsy Crow, Double Deuce, and 1st Street Bar. They just hired a new chef, Jacob Cureton, who recently relocated from New Orleans where he held a position as Sous Chef at Johnny V’s Bistro.

Check back in December for our follow-up article on the newly renovated club, 1202, and some new dishes that will be featured on the The Range Kitchen & Cocktails menu.

For more information about the Range Kitchen & Cocktails visit www.therangesd.com or follow the restaurant’s happenings on Facebook www.facebook.com/theRangeSD and Twitter @TheRangeSD.