Apr. 18—MITCHELL — An old building on Main Street has been given new life.
The Western National Bank building, at the southeast corner of Third Avenue and Main Street, which once held banks, judges, accountants and insurance agents, is now the home of 28 apartments and coming soon, a restaurant.
Adamo’s Kitchen, opening in September, will bring authentic Italian cuisine to Mitchell’s Main Street.
The birth of a second Adamo’s Kitchen came about when California-based John Adamo first saw the Western building and considered his options for renovating it. John Adamo jokingly suggested to Chiara Adamo, his daughter, that they should put in another Adamo’s Kitchen in Mitchell.
“I was like, ‘OK, let’s do it,'” Chiara Adamo said. “It’s such a beautiful spot down here. I know that we can bring something new to the area.”
The menu at the Mitchell Adamo’s will include about 20 stable dishes also served at the Adamo’s Kitchen Sacramento location, which opened about 11 years ago.
“We make all of our own sauces,” she said. “We make all our own homemade pasta.”
A sampling of the menu includes pasta dishes like gnocchi, chicken alfredo and carbonara, and appetizers like stuffed cherry peppers and fried risotto balls. Also on the menu are house salads, subs, and sandwiches. House sauces include marinara and bolognese, among others. Charcuterie boards include selected Italian meats and cheeses.
Adamo’s has a dedicated pasta making station, and staff in Mitchell will have spacious food preparation area, floor space and kitchen equipment compared to Adamo’s Sacramento location.
The dining room of Adamo’s Kitchen can serve an estimated 50 guests, with booth seating and a mix of square and rectangle tables.
Chiara Adamo, 38, plans to serve imported wine from the Tenuta Adamo family vineyard near Lucca, Tuscany in Italy as well as have beer on tap from local breweries.
Framed photos of the family vineyard will be hung around the Adamo’s Kitchen dining area.
There will be room for four to six people at the bar, which will serve beer and wine, but no hard liquor. Marble, which was found in the basement of the Western building, will be repurposed.
“We’re going to bring that up and we’re going to make the bar top,” she said.
Glass windows, which were removed from the Western building exterior in a previous remodel, have been installed in the dining room and will light up, according Don Dahl, who has done the renovation work on the Western building. Dahl estimated that Adamo’s Kitchen in Mitchell will be his seventh restaurant build.
Additionally, the private banquet room, located behind the kitchen, will hold about 50 guests for private events, receptions, wedding rehearsals, group meetings and bus tours.
Kitchen staff from California will rotate in and out of the Western building to help train local hires on how to make Adamo’s traditional menu items. Chiara Adamo guessed she will hire 10 to 12 full time people, with training starting in July.
“I don’t want to just bring people from California here,” she said. “I want buy-in from the community too.”
Some of Adamo’s Kitchen Sacramento hires started as dishwashers and then learned how to prepare food, including a local family’s four sons.
“Each one took his turn washing and then he moved on to making salads, appetizers. That’s how a lot of people get started,” she said.
Adamo’s Kitchen will also sell tickets to a weekly pasta making class, which includes dessert, a wine tasting, and Italian trivia.
“After the class is done making the ravioli, they get to sit down, have a little salad, and prepare their lunch,” she said.
Chiara Adamo splits her time with her young family in Sacramento and in Mitchell making preparations for the September opening of Adamo’s Kitchen.
“It’s a sprint and a marathon at the same time. We’re working on finalizing equipment orders, so that we get everything in,” she said.
The Western National Bank building, located at 223 N. Main St., is one of 72 buildings within the Mitchell Historic Commercial District, which highlights the architecture of Mitchell’s history between 1883 and 1963 and contributes to its status on the National Registry of Historic Places.
The Western building was built in 1906 and has four stories and a basement, and since then, the building has received a few makeovers. In 1926, J.C. Penney’s moved in and replaced the storefront. Around 1960, the storefront was replaced again with large glass display windows, a retractable awning and a neon sign was hung from the corner. New owners in the 2010s also brought a new look.
And then it fell into disrepair. The city of Mitchell considered demolishing the building as it had done with others nearby, but instead decided to pay for the asbestos to be removed and made nuisance repairs for roughly $111,000 while settling a dispute with the previous owners.
In September 2021, the Mitchell City Council approved Tax Increment District No. 26 to aid the renovations of the Western building with the Mitchell Area Development Corporation as developer. In March 2022, John Adamo purchased the Western building for $2.12 million.
In 2020, California was in lockdown, and the Adamos started looking at expanding operations to other states. The Adamos considered Florida, Tennessee, and Texas. Finally, a television advertisement with then-South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem brought South Dakota to the forefront for John Adamo.
“And so he came here, and he saw this building, and just fell in love with the town. He saw the opportunity here, and he’s just running with it. And so I’m going for it too,” Chiara Adamo said.
John Adamo called Dahl, who also built the Adamo’s Kitchen Sacramento location and rehabbed various historical buildings. When Dahl started renovating the Western building, he and his wife lived in a hotel for six months.
“My wife and I love it here,” Dahl said.
Dahl has renovated the Western building’s upper floors into studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments. He has sought to preserve the historical look of the building as it was a hundred years ago, while also adding in modern bathrooms, kitchens and central air to the long ago private office spaces.
“We kept as much of the original offices and tore out as little as possible,” Dahl said.
The doors from the original offices, with opaque glass, serve as entrances to the apartments. The original occupant’s names are still on the doors, including H.M. Watkins, public accountant, and Walrath-Craig Co. Insurance.
When they ran out of original doors while renovating the fourth floor, Dahl had look-alike doors made that resemble the style of doors within the rest of the building.
“Everything you see we’ve restored, and it’s not restored to perfection, it is just preserved,” Dahl said.
Dahl refurbished the light fixtures within the building and reinstalled them. He had the original door locks rekeyed.
The old elevator was removed and a new elevator was installed. The original elevator doors were moved about four feet and reinstalled as an historic nod to the building, but are not functional, only decorative.
A brick stairwell was added to the northwest corner of the building to meet modern fire safety and building code requirements.
The fourth floor is still a work in progress, and Dahl expects to be done with it this year so he can move on to other projects in town. John Adamo’s multiple other Main Street buildings will provide Dahl with “another 20 years worth” of work.
“Everybody here is so welcoming and nice, I look forward to when I get to come out here,” Chiara Adamo said.
When asked about other plans for Main Street buildings, Chiara Adamo smiled.
“One thing at a time,” she said.