Sneak peek: How Look's Market is re-shaping former C.J. Callaway's space in Sioux Falls

Even with plenty of work yet to go, it’s clear there will be a major difference when Look’s Market opens its new concept in the southern Sioux Falls restaurant space once occupied by C.J. Callaway’s.

Light poured through the entire space Monday as crews under the rafters and beams that will eventually become a home to the market's varied offerings.

Since taking over the space, the building’s new owners have opened up windows and added even more, maximizing natural light for a concept designed to be both diverse and communal.

There will also be windows on the inside, giving Look's customers and workers full view of what’s happening throughout the building, of the beer brewery, the butcher and the live-fire kitchen that will serve up food for a full-service restaurant under the space’s impressive rotunda.

Even the rotunda has been opened up, offering guests an impressive vertical space, surrounded by views of the golf course and what will eventually be multiple opportunities for outdoor seating.

“It’s us trying to bring something new and special to Sioux Falls,” Look’s partner Nick Heineman said.

The new location at 500 E. 69th St., right on Prairie Green Golf Course, is four times the size of Look’s current space and represents a new life stage for one of Sioux Falls’ oldest businesses, which was founded in the 1880s.

Look’s leadership expects to open to customers in September or October, though it’s too early to set an opening date, Heineman said.

In addition to outgrowing the storefront on South Old Village Place, the move is an effort to maximize the potential of Look’s experienced and talented staff, partner and manager Beau Vondra said. The market takes special care in how it treats its employees and the result has been the addition of people who love what they do and approach the food service industry as a career, not just a job, Vondra said.

He gave credit to a list of Look’s staff, including executive chef Brendan Parks, who served as chef at Parker’s Bistro for three years after working in some of Omaha’s top kitchens. Look’s has also hired and trained staff for its meat department, for pastry and for the brewery that will operate in one of the far wings of the new location.

“We accumulated a bunch of talented individiuals that we felt could really portray their skills in a new space,” Vondra said. “That was one of the reasons we decided to do what we do.”

Look’s Market is moving the entrance to the building to the southern face of the old Callaway’s event space. Shoppers will be greeted by the grocery and meats section, and then be able to move as they please between the bakery and cheese and charcuterie area before entering the rotunda.

Under the rotunda will be a circular bar, with seating for the coffee shop, the brewery and a full-service restaurant. Past that is the exhibition room for classes and events.

“We want to have people that have a bunch of different experiences throughout the space,” Vondra said. “We want it to be a place that people, when they have friends from outside of town, they want to bring them to it to show it off.”