By Josh Linehan 

The Brookings Register

BROOKINGS — Being honest, Michael Johnson thought someone was playing a joke on him.

Standing over a stove in the kitchen at The Pheasant in Brookings, the general manager and head chef was working on approximately seven things at once, including sauces for some featured dishes, when a server interrupted him to say someone was on the phone.

“And it’s Valentine’s Day, so I was thinking, which cook thought this was funny,” Johnson said with a chuckle.

For any unaware, Valentine’s Day is generally one of the most stressful days of the year in restaurant kitchens. And cooks are known to have a devious sense of humor. Johnson’s wariness was well-founded.

“But her eyes got real big and she said, ‘You want to take this one.’”

It was a representative from the James Beard Foundation on the other end. Waiting to tell Johnson that The Pheasant was the winner of one of the most prestigious awards in American food.

“I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I just about fell out of my chair.”

And with good reason. It would be hard to overstate the level of prestige behind a James Beard Award. And as far as anyone can tell, The Pheasant is the first restaurant in South Dakota to receive one.

The cafe-style hot beef.

Established in 1990 and named after Beard, the “Dean of American Cookery,” the Beard Awards read like a who’s who of American chefs and restaurateurs from the last 40 years.

The Pheasant won an America’s Classics Award. According to the Beard Foundation, the designation is awarded each year to “locally-owned restaurants that have timeless appeal and are beloved regionally for quality food that reflects the character of their community.”

The Pheasant joins such beloved spots as: The Anchor Bar in Buffalo, where the Buffalo wing was invented; Al’s Breakfast in Dinkytown, Minneapolis, where students have eaten breakfast for more than 100 years; Peter Luger’s world famous steakhouse in New York City; Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack in Nashville, inventors of Nashville hot chicken; and Joe’s Stone Crab, the iconic spot for seafood in Miami Beach.

Joining such a list has been, Johnson said, overwhelming.

“Obviously we’re ecstatic, but there’s a nervous element too. We kind of don’t know what’s about to happen,” Johnson said. “We’re a small, hometown restaurant and bar, and we never imagined something like this would happen. But the overriding thing is everyone is just super happy.”

Opened as a gas station and café in 1949, The Pheasant is thought to be the longest-operating restaurant in Brookings. Georgiana and Ronald Olson — Michael’s grandparents, and Georgiana is still the owner — bought the place in 1966 and operated it along with a pizza spot in Madison. And it has been family run since: Michael’s mom, Paula Olson-Meyer, and aunt, Karen Olson-Hernandez took over operations from there, and now Michael and partner Trevor Clements guide the ship.

Under present management, The Pheasant has steered a unique course, combining comfort classics like the hot beef sandwich or taco salad on a menu with more refined dishes like duck wings and spatzle.

In short, it’s a place where anyone in Brookings will be comfortable, but you can get the best food in town. And that’s no mistake.

South Dakota, broadly, and Brookings in general have not traditionally been kind to fine dining restaurants. But The Pheasant and its staff have put the work in over years to meet its customers where they are. Vinegar and oil can be mixed, after all, it just takes a good hand on the whisk.

“I think we were not setting out to win a James Beard award, obviously,” Johnson said of navigating the line between homestyle and high-end cooking. “We were just doing our thing. But what we learned along the way was whatever you think is good, you can’t tell people what is good. You have to give people what they want, or what they are happy to try — What they would be happy to experience for the first time.

“And then this place is such a local signature, that to be here, in this building, with this name — that has given us license to do what we want to do for so long,” he continued. “And our community, inside the building and out, is multigenerational. It’s family. And Pheasant family.

We have multiple generations of patrons, multiple generations of staff, maintaining that connection, eventually we found our place in that.”

Local diners noticed, and so did the Beard Foundation.

The statement announcing the award reads, in part: “The menu is full of iconic mid-century dishes of the upper Midwest, like hot roast beef on homemade white bread with mashed potatoes and gravy; Nordic waffles (vafler) made with cardamom and folded around smoked salmon or gjetost; classics, like chef salad, spätzle, and liver and onions; and riffs on comfort food like duck wings, bison steak au poivre, and a lamb burger with local jalapeño jelly and peanut butter.”

And it concludes, “Under Johnson’s leadership, the Pheasant remains a community anchor while being open to change. As it updates accessibility for patrons and staff with disabilities, supports local musicians, and serves $9 ‘early bird’ dinners, Pheasant Restaurant and Lounge embodies the good, simple food and hospitality of South Dakota.”

A lot might change at The Pheasant, now that it has been thrust into the national spotlight — but Johnson is committed to keeping that key heart of community public house intact. It will still be the spot you can get a hot beef or good happy hour glass of wine and great conversation at the bar. Or you can try something new on a date night out. It will still be the place where the line cooks might pull a prank on the boss some Mother’s Day about an hour before service. And it still will have the “timeless appeal” of the spot you can suggest to visitors with pride. “It really is a community thing, a family thing, a Pheasant Fam thing,” Johnson said. “It’s something that took so many people together, over so many years, it’s overwhelming to think about.”

Josh Linehan is the editor of The Brookings Register. Contact him at jlinehan@brookingsregister.com