Looking Back: After slow start, Northlander became a Sioux Falls hot spot

Eric Renshaw
Special to the Argus Leader
The Northlander, at 4200 S. Minnesota Ave., was a dining and entertainment fixture in Sioux Falls from the late '70s to early '90s.

In late 1976, plans were announced for a new restaurant and entertainment complex to be built at 4200 S. Minnesota Avenue. Phillip Froehlich and Timothy Engen were the force behind the ambitious project, which would be called The Northlander Center, a complex combining shops, a bar and a 100-seat restaurant, all in one grand building.

The project was expected to cost $1 million, and construction was to begin by March 15, 1977.

A liquor license was applied for and acquired for the Northlander. The license had become available when the city denied the renewal of a license held since 1973 by Omaha firm Park Towne for a hotel that, by that point, had not come to fruition. By late November, when no work was moving forward on The Northlander, those who had been denied one of the limited number of liquor licenses were understandably concerned that Froehlich and Engen’s plans would go the same way as Park Towne’s. The liquor license was going to expire in January, and approval for renewal would happen in late December.

On Dec. 8, 1977, Mayor Rick Knobe said he would not vote to renew the license on Dec. 27 unless some work had begun on the project. A groundbreaking ceremony was held Dec. 21, and the license was renewed.

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Work continued from there with footings being poured for the structure. The rest of the construction had to wait until spring. Once resumed, progress steadily moved along until Sept. 23, 1978, when the restaurant was finally ready to open. When Engen opened the door to a crowd of people who were invited to The Northlander’s premiere, he quipped, “Come on in, we’ve only been waiting about two years for you.”

The Northlander’s cost came in over budget at $1.2 million and included five distinct dining areas and multiple cocktail lounges, with seating for 325. For the opening, the staff provided 300 pounds of liver pate; 150 pounds of cooked shrimp; several cases of watermelon, honeydew melons and cantaloupe; and plenty of liquor and champagne. Froehlich told reporter Marshall Fine that they would spend between $3,000 to $6,000 on food and drink on the opening night, depending on how many of the 1,300 invited arrived. The Northlander had 12,972 square feet of usable space, most of which was occupied by guests that first night as Engen and Froehlich showed off their new creation.

The Northlander became one of the new hot spots of Sioux Falls’ fine dining scene, along with Minervas and The Lafayette. For years, it was a place for dining, entertainment, business meetings, receptions and more.

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In 1981, Froehlich and Engen sought to expand their empire by buying the Pyrenees II restaurant in Rapid City. The plan was to remodel and bring the same kind of dining experience to Rapid City’s scene as Sioux Falls enjoyed. That project worked well, and the two went on to establish O’Garrity’s in Sioux City,  Iowa’s, historic Badgerow Building in 1983. SIoux City’s downtown was showing some signs of recovery since the city had started to add second-story walkways to make shopping downtown more attractive. The project was to cost $1.3 million.

O’Garrity’s proved to be a more difficult project. A labor union strike started while construction was underway, and much of the work was eventually continued by nonunion labor. This increased costs and left the project off balance.

By 1986, it became clear that Engen and Froehlich were having financial difficulties. Froehlich had filed for personal bankruptcy protection in September, while Engen had been arrested in North Dakota in August, charged with selling unregistered securities and selling securities as an unregistered agent. In December, The Northlander, Pyrenees and O’Garrity’s closed.

The bank owned The Northlander, but banks are not in the business of running successful restaurants. A deal was struck with Mike Pospischil and Lewis Casson, who would run and eventually buy The Northlander.

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The restaurant reopened March 20, 1987, after Pospischil and Casson gave the business a much-needed $200,000 update. The Northlander once more hosted many a wedding reception and fine dining experience. The new model was to add entertainment to the experience. Live performances could be heard in the dining spaces from the Northstar Bar, located upstairs. Downstairs, the Faces Bar was conducive to quiet conversations. Casson said the Faces Bar was going to be one of the few bars in town that had a bed in it.

On Sept. 12, 1991, smoke was reported to be rolling out of the rear of the building. A fire in the kitchen had gotten out of hand, causing structural damage in the kitchen and smoke and water damage to the rest of the building. Pospichil promised The Northlander would reopen by December, but by then they’d thrown in the towel. It was announced on the 14th of that month that Don Dunham would turn the Northlander into condominiums.

The Northlander was a meeting place, a date destination and a part of Sioux Falls for decades. It still holds a warm place in many hearts. 

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