Someone You Should Know: Award-winning chef to open restaurant in Downtown Sioux Falls

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - Bryan Moscatello said he never wanted to be a chef. He grew up in an Italian household, where they had Sunday dinner at grandma’s house. Cooking came naturally to him, but he never thought he was going to be a chef. He moved to Aspen, CO to snowboard in his 20s, and he found himself in the kitchen of a restaurant learning from very good chefs there.

He’s worked all over the country, running restaurants in Denver, the Napa Valley, Aspen, Chicago, and even in Panama City. He is in the process of opening a new restaurant in Downtown Sioux Falls. He’s been doing a lot of the renovation work himself, alongside his team. He jokes that he’s not only a chef but a carpenter now too.

“It’s hard, and it’s a lot of ‘Is this the right thing to do?’ ‘Is this the right time?’” Moscatello said. “There’s always that- you know that feeling... but I believe in what I do.”

His wife, Jaime, is one of the reasons they found themselves in South Dakota.

“Since my wife Jaime is from Sioux Falls, we have a lot of extended family here, and when we visited here, I came into the space, and I was just like, this is the space,” he said.

It’s where The Market used to be inside the Harvester Building off 6th Street near the Levitt. Now, it’s Harvester Kitchen by Bryan.

“We’re hoping to create a very unique dining experience here in Sioux Falls. From a food standpoint, we’re going to be innovative American cuisine, utilizing a lot of locally sourced ingredients,” Moscatello said.

He said they’re still in the process of vetting local producers, so they’re not done making the menu. Moscatello and his wife moved to Sioux Falls from Washington, D.C. where he ran The Oval Room.

“My restaurant was literally across the street from The White House, and I was sitting there on a Saturday night, I can’t remember the exact date in June, and I watched my building being broken into that the restaurant housed,” he said.

That was right after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis and protests erupted all over the United States. Those moments and the pandemic gave him a chance to refocus on what kind of mark he wants to leave in life.

“I’ve always known part of the drive for me is welcoming people in, welcoming guests, taking care of them,” he said.

That’s the environment his restaurant manager, Becca Connelly, is looking forward to helping create.

“He’s someone I can definitely see myself looking up to and learning a lot from,” she said.

He competed on a season of Chopped Grill Masters in 2016. He’s hoping Harvester Kitchen by Bryan will open by the end of April. Moscatello said he will open when they’re ready though.

As always, if there is someone you think we should all know, please email a nomination to news@dakotanewsnow.com.

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