Review: Tally's Silver Spoon (Rapid City, SD)

Badlands National Park

Recently, I took an epic road trip and during this road trip had the opportunity to eat out a couple of times--another review to come soon! One of the places I ate was Tally's Silver Spoon in Rapid City, South Dakota. I arrived early, after driving from the Badlands and Wall Drug, which inconveniently didn't open when I was 1) ready for breakfast--and preferably something different than the corn tortillas with nut-butter I'd had for dinner-- and 2) ready to get on the road. Since Rapid City had more promising gluten-free options, it seemed well worth just getting on the road.

Tally's Silver Spoon --  "Born with a silver spoon" in one's mouth, and the privilege issues associated with that, come to mind. But also, for me at least, this called to mind the somewhat typical greasy-spoon diners that seems so common on the road. But Tally's is certainly not the second (though it may be closer to the first). Inside the restaurant, the design is close to Danish Modern, with chrome colored tables, black and white, and a lot of odd curves and straight lines. Fresh-cut flowers on the table.

The menu at Tally's changes weekly, based on what's fresh and available. They support local growers and businesses as much as possible and the menu reflects this. And it's clear that when the chef was hired s/he was told "have fun." The menu is creative and while there were breakfast staples on the menu (eggs with meat and toast, for instance--but creatively done), there were also things like Beignet sliders and breakfast risotto. They  pour Douwe Egberts coffee, which reminds me of undergrad (my only fond memory of undergrad) and is one of my favorite coffees for its smoothness and flavor.

I had the Vegetable Breakfast, "garden greens, vegetables, herbs, shoots, sprouts, hollandaise, sweet potatoes, sunny egg, toast" with the toast substituted (at no extra charge!) for a beautiful cup of seasonal berries. My travel companion ordered beignets (eat them while they're hot, and it's a large order so maybe make it a meal or split them with someone), which at Tally's are more like cake donuts (very good cake donuts, apparently) than the fluffy pillow beignets that are so popular in St. Louis. He also ordered the Fishmonger “Day’s catch”, mussels, shrimp, salmon, potatoes, avocado, red pepper, lemon & dill cream, poached eggs, toast,"which was plenty of protein for at least two people.

In short, if you find yourself in Rapid City, give this place a try, especially if you're aiming for something gluten-free. The chef had no problem making changes, the food was beautifully presented and tasty, and the server was courteous and attentive.