8 August 2024
Boss’ Pizza & Chicken in Sioux Falls has a new owner, allowing the founder to invest more time in expanding the franchise.
Jeremy Seefeldt sold the restaurant on central Minnesota Avenue and the delivery service at 26th Street and Marion Road to Ryan Bitterman earlier this year.
Bitterman has worked in the industry his entire life in Sioux Falls, but this is his first restaurant. He started working at Godfather’s Pizza as a teenager and was a manager at Johnny Carino’s and Chevy’s Fresh Mex for two decades.
“He understands as much or more about the food industry as I do,” said Seefeldt, who opened his first restaurant in 2005.
“Basically, because of all the franchising and everything we were doing, I just didn’t have time to focus as much on the local business,” he said.
That shift in focus led him to close Boss’ Pizzeria & Sports Bar in Tea, which he opened after purchasing the former Tea Steak House in late 2021. A third Boss’ in Sioux Falls, located in the Ramada Waterpark, closed in October 2023 when the hotel did not renew the lease and opted to open Boston’s Pizza instead.
He also recently sold Boss’ in Rapid City to his business partner; that owner is currently expanding with a second location in another hotel scheduled to open this month.
Seefeldt still owns restaurants in Des Moines, Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota, and North Platte, Nebraska.
The latest city for a Boss’ franchise is Plymouth, Minnesota, a western suburb of the Twin Cities. Thomas Moore of Sioux Falls is opening the restaurant in a Ramada hotel that includes the Plymouth Playhouse. It is scheduled to open in September.
Other franchise locations include Brookings, Yankton, Keystone and Okoboji in Iowa. Seefeldt said he has proposals for Aberdeen, Omaha, Dickinson, North Dakota, Mason City, Iowa and Springfield, Missouri. Those opportunities exist in hotels or gaming arcades.
“I just have to find franchisees for them,” said Seefeldt, whose team includes minority owners Josh Benz, Adam Wilka and Brooke Barhite.
All of Boss’ franchise agreements include 1st & Tenders, a ghost kitchen concept that Seefeldt launched in Sioux Falls last fall and expanded to all locations earlier this year. The menu features Boss’ hand-breaded chicken tenders, bone-in chicken wings, fries and other sides.
“It’s slowly but surely getting a little better,” he said of the new brand’s success. “It’s starting to catch on in some places, probably more so in Des Moines than anywhere else. They understand ghost kitchens a little better there.”
He also helped develop apps for Boss’ and 1st & Tenders to make it easier for customers to order takeout or delivery. The apps were released this week and can be downloaded from Google Play or the Apple App Store.
Seefeldt is excited about the future of Boss’ in Sioux Falls under new ownership.
“Our service was not very good, mainly because I didn’t have time for it. … He brings a new sense of service to the quality product we’ve had for years,” he said of Bitterman.
That’s definitely the focus, Bitterman said.
“We’re working really hard to get the community back behind us in terms of service and delivery,” he said. “We want to focus on an hour or less delivery time. That’s our biggest focus. The food has always been really good.”
This is a large area that needs to be covered by the two locations – and it continues to grow as the city grows. Delivery is possible every day until 3 a.m.
“We are constantly hiring and looking for good people,” Bitterman said.
The restaurant on Minnesota Avenue has a special feature typical of pizzerias: There is a pinball room with more than a dozen machines.
There are more than 30 specialty pizzas, and “I’d be lying if I said I’ve tried them all,” Bitterman said. He said his favorite pizza is a cross between breakfast pizza and the Philly, which he stuffs with extra meat and pickled jalapenos.
A Thanksgiving tradition will continue under new ownership. For over a decade, Seefeldt has offered a free takeout chicken dinner on the holiday and now has an agreement with Bitterman that allows him to rent the space each year to continue doing so.
