S.D. lawmakers on forced diet because Capitol basement cafe shut down

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) _ Hunger was the hot topic during the first week of the legislative session, not as a social issue on the official calendar but because the lawmakers' cupboard, their cafe in the

Saturday, January 13th 2007, 1:32 pm

By: News On 6

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) _ Hunger was the hot topic during the first week of the legislative session, not as a social issue on the official calendar but because the lawmakers' cupboard, their cafe in the basement, was bare _ out of business, in fact.

Thank goodness for pizza delivery and sub sandwich shops.

For the first time in decades, legislators began their annual session without any hot meals and beverages on the premises, only vending machines with soft drinks, chips and candy.

The session opened Tuesday and the restaurant situation quickly took its toll.

``I didn't eat all day yesterday,'' state Sen. Gene Abdallah said Thursday.

That will change this week. A new restaurant operator has agreed to reopen the Capitol cafe, possibly as soon as Tuesday.

Lack of a handy eatery is especially bleak for lawmakers in Pierre (pronounced Peer), because the closest restaurant with hot food is two blocks away, a long walk when the winter wind whistles in off the prairie with temperatures that can dive below zero.

And that restaurant isn't large enough to handle meals for 105 lawmakers, plus several times that number of lobbyists, legislative staffers and others who come to the Capitol each winter.

Only a handful of states have no food service in their Capitols or other buildings where legislators gather. But unlike Pierre, a town of only about 14,000 people, most have restaurants nearby.

Several restaurant operators have run the cafe without much success over the years, said Steve Stoneback, state deputy commissioner of administration. Even free rent apparently didn't add much to their bottom line.

The problem is that the Capitol cafe is busy only during the annual two-month lawmaking session. The rest of the year, most Capitol employees can easily go home for lunch.

And even when the Legislature is in town it's hard to get enough customers in the cafe because various groups, businesses and special interests bring mounds of free food almost daily, drawing hungry crowds in the rotunda and in public lobbies behind the House and Senate.

``You just can't run a deal profitably here with that much free food. How do you compete with free?'' said Jim Fry, the Legislative Research Council executive director.

Late this past week, a restaurant operator finally agreed to reopen the Capitol cafe.

Tony Junk, general manager of McClellands Restaurant across the Missouri River in Fort Pierre, said he's sure he can make a go of the Capitol cafe. He said his family owns six successful restaurants in Austin, Texas.

``We know what it takes to turn a stark, dormitory-style cafe into an intimate restaurant,'' he said Thursday.

``We're going to provide home-cooked food, fresh daily, and we'll price it right so state workers can get hot meals and drinks for $6 or less,'' he said. ``I'm certain it's going to work.''