Bradley’s Brings New Look to Building, Investment on Main Street in Mitchell – Mitchell Republic

MITCHELL — After the Scoreboard Pub and Grille closed for good earlier this week, a celebratory party has begun next door.

Right on the roof of Mitchell’s new restaurant on Main Street.

On Monday night, Jason Bradley slipped away from the group enjoying champagne and toasting to the past and the future.

Exciting times lie ahead and he took a moment to reflect.

“I went downstairs, had half a glass of beer, sat down and thought, ‘Oh my God, this is really going to happen,’” said Jason Bradley, known locally as the owner of three Culver’s franchises in South Dakota, including Mitchell’s. “We’ve been trying to get here for three years.”

After a seemingly endless wait and an investment of over $3 million, Bradley’s Pub & Grille, owned by Jason and Jen Bradley, is ready to open its doors. The grand opening is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Thursday, September 19.

The Scoreboard had long been a fixture on Mitchell’s Main Street, nestled just south of the Corn Palace at 522 N. Main St., as a regular stop for tourists and locals visiting the city’s biggest attraction.

While Jason Bradley considered purchasing another Culver’s a few years ago, he and Jen changed course and chose an alternative path to grow their business. The Bradleys took over Scoreboard from longtime owner Steve Culhane in July 2021 with plans to expand and plan to eventually relocate.

But they did not travel far.

Next door at 514 N. Main St., a city landmark known to most as the old Northwestern building needed a facelift, they thought. They bought their new location for $100,000 in the fall of 2022 and watched over its renovation while serving drinks and burgers nearby.

“We knew we weren’t going to be here forever,” said Jen Bradley, wearing an “End of an Era” T-shirt in homage to the former location. “It’s rare that restaurants our size can train for three years to build their team and their menu, all the little pieces.”

It’s truly the end of an era for the Scoreboard, which dates back to the 1930s. Once an old pool hall and sports bar, the original Scoreboard was located further south on Main Street next to the State Theatre until a massive fire in 2004 destroyed part of the community.

Culhane, who bought the bar in 1998, considered quitting after the fire, but he knew the location next to the Corn Palace was available and decided to head north.

Earlier this month, Culhane toured the new Bradley’s restaurant, designed by Mitchell-based Puetz, and was impressed with the result. He said losing the historic name was bittersweet, but praised how the Bradleys have adapted to their clientele.

“No one really knows how much time the Bradleys put into the design and development of this building,” Culhane said. “They made a huge investment in the city of Mitchell and in themselves, which is great.”

The Bradleys wanted their name on Main Street, they said of the restaurant’s name change. And “it seems like there’s a bulletin board in every town,” Bradley added.

Starting with a new name is understandable with a financial investment that Bradley says cost “our entire life savings.” But it’s more than that.

The restaurant has become a job center for the city, which reinvests in residents. Bradley’s has nearly eight times the staff it did when they took over Scoreboard in 2021, when there were eight employees. Maybe fewer, said Mitchell native Katy Sebert, the front-of-house manager. Today, Sebert schedules 62 employees, 35 of whom are Mitchell natives.

Sebert is impressed by the long bar and happy that some tasks will change in the new facility.

“I was counting down the days until I wouldn’t have to sweep the carpet in the old building anymore,” Sebert said.

Many unique features await those dining and drinking, including a waiting room upon arrival for those extremely busy times.

The restaurant has a massive TV wall in the main area, which allows four TVs to be combined into one for big events like the Super Bowl. The dishwasher is a new feature that the old building didn’t have. Yes, there have been a lot of dishes to wash by hand over the years, Bradley said. The building also has larger, more efficient bathrooms, a dedicated party room and historic photos of Mitchell stretching down a hallway.

But it’s the new rooftop terrace that’s the most interesting. It has its own seasonal bar and is equipped with a dumbwaiter that lifts orders so that waiters don’t have to climb two flights of stairs with such a heavy load.

Adding a rooftop area has been a hurdle along the way. The plans have received some opposition from the state Historic Preservation Office and a few members of the local council tasked with reviewing proposed renovation plans for historic properties in October 2023.

While some felt the idea didn’t fit with the image of downtown Mitchell, others disagreed. Jen Bradley praised the Mitchell City Council for supporting the renovation and the local contractors who made it possible. The vision for the rooftop and the restaurant as a whole came from the Bradleys’ visits to restaurants all over the United States, including Dallas, Milwaukee, Chicago, Nashville and Denver.

The rooftop terrace resembles the outdoor space of the old Scoreboard and can accommodate 80 people. In total, the restaurant will have a maximum capacity of 300 people when the entire project is completed, which includes the demolition of the old building and the addition of additional outdoor seating on the ground floor to the north.

“I felt like it was a very long process,” Bradley said. “In the beginning, there were all these little setbacks with the historic preservation department telling us we couldn’t have a rooftop deck in this type of community. And we were like, ‘Really, what?’”

“We kind of joke that if we had bought the Burger King building, it would have been done two years ago. But it’s very important to me to be right next to the Corn Palace. It’s also very special.”

As the Bradleys prepare to officially open their doors to the public, they are looking forward to seeing the Corn Palace Plaza expand where the old Scoreboard once stood and Main Street continue to get a new look. The Bradleys are taking the same menu and adding a few items — steak, pasta, salmon and pizza — and “are ready to start digging in,” Bradley said.

“We want to remain a staple here forever,” she added.