EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth story in the 2022 Battle of the Eats series, which features the best small-town restaurants as voted upon by Mitchell Republic readers. The series will appear Saturdays through Aug. 27 this summer.

WAGNER, S.D. — Choteau Creek Brewing Company is not a restaurant, their owners admit.

But in the trendy boom of craft beer and local food experiences, there is not a more unique mix between the two in South Dakota. That’s especially the case when you consider the location, out in the country, 8 miles from Wagner, and out on a gravel road.

Then again, how many breweries have cattle just outside the window?

“We don’t fit into a single mold,” said Lisa Schoenfelder, who runs the business with her husband, Paul. “We’re not a restaurant. We’re not a bar. We’re just completely different and it’s something unique, that our customers are getting something they’re not getting anywhere else.”

The menu changes from simple to refined depending on what is scheduled at the brewery. On a typical night — the brewery is open Thursday and Friday nights and throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday — Choteau Creek’s standard menu focuses on their pizzas, flatbreads and desserts.

Among the highlights includes a cottage bacon pizza that includes bacon from the New Elm Colony and peppers and onions. Others include a popular Reuben pizza and a cajun pizza, while the popular desserts include a New Orleans-inspired bourbon bread pudding.

“Food is cultural. We want to have that conversation, that social experience,” Lisa Schoenfelder said, noting one of her favorite parts of the brewery is when complete strangers strike up a conversation over their meal. “We have such a great mix of cultures, big city people who might be in the small town, and then small town people who are looking for that bigger experience with how they enjoy their food.”

Some of the most popular events have been built around specific events, such as Mardi Gras, where Lisa Schoenfelder built a menu around jambalaya, gumbo, crab and shrimp etouffee and king cakes. Another specific menu for an event paired wines and beers with a multi-course meal, with each level crafted to play off the one before it. Sometimes there might be a special brunch event, with a specific curated menu.

The beer menu frequently changes but unlike a few years ago, now all six taps at Choteau Creek include their own beers. The specialties still revolve around Belgian beers but along with his son, Zach, Paul Schoenfelder likes to experiment with the beers. The Hot Mess, a spiced Belgian blonde ale, is their beer answer to Fireball whiskey, and Glass of Sunshine German wheat beer is meant to be easy to drink. A recent limited-run specialty beer — the Grape Full Ded Saison, made with local wild grapes — sold out in a single day.

“Some people come for the beer and stay for the food,” Paul Schoenfelder said. “Some people are here for the food and they might try a beer. I think customers enjoy that part of it.”

As the Mitchell Republic profiled in 2020 , the Schoenfelders started the brewery on the family’s fifth generation homestead, now known as the Sip Homestead Bed and Breakfast. The land has been in the family since 1896. The bed and breakfast, which is across the farm yard from the brewery, has shown a consistent appeal to travelers, particularly RV users. For the brewery, the Choteau Creek name comes from the nearby creek that winds through the Wagner area and eventually reaches the Missouri River.

Much like the family connections that the homestead makes historically significant, business for Choteau Creek comes through family events, reunions and anniversaries and birthdays.

The brewery and bed and breakfast have gotten plenty of business from travelers making their way across the state, with visitors hailing from Alaska, Hawaii, Quebec and Germany recently. Choteau Creek is also a draw for those staying in campgrounds at the nearby Missouri River. The Schoenfelders say it’s almost a certainty that they will meet a new face every day they’re open, something that they relish as part of the business.

On the farm, Choteau Creek is located in an otherwise innocuous-looking metal shed, with the front half built with a small bar and a seating area. In the back half of the building is Choteau Creek’s commercial-sized kitchen, plus brewing equipment and storage cooler. It has a roll up window to the outdoors, which allows customers to sit outside on a warm summer night and still get service to the beer taps.

Choteau Creek is not afraid to experiment. Its owners regularly have outdoor yoga at the brewery. They bring in food trucks and have live music on hand, playing on an old truck that they’ve converted into a small band stage.

Visitors frequently ask if the business will expand or change. For now, Lisa Schoenfelder said they will work hard to continue to stay true to themselves.

“We’ve really built something we love and I think we have a lot of people that have come to enjoy it as well,” she said.