A CHANGING LANDSCAPE

GLACIERS ONCE SHAPED THE TERRAIN OF SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA. TODAY, PEOPLE DO. THEIR IMPRINT SHOWS EVERYWHERE IN A LIVELY FOOD AND COCKTAIL SCENE, THROUGH A KALEIDOSCOPE OF OUTDOOR ART, AND AT A WATERFALL PARK THAT LOOKS BETTER THAN EVER.

- JULIA SAYERS GOKHALE

Twenty-one years ago, a little restaurant with butter yellow walls opened in an unassuming strip mall in downtown Sioux Falls. Sanaa's offered an alternative to the mostly meat-and-potatoes cuisine of the time: fresh, vegetable-forward Mediterranean food. Herb-packed tabbouleh, crispy falafel, spicy harissa eggplant. People came, says owner Sanaa Abourezk, often out of curiosity. So she started simply, with soup and warm baked pita bread. Then she introduced folks to kufta, a seasoned ground beef kabob, by equating it to the Norwegian meatballs many of her neighbors were more familiar with.

And now, two decades later and two James Beard Award nominations under her belt, Abourezk's extensive menu includes things like shish tawook (cumin-spiced chicken), mjadara (lentil and bulgur pilaf) and 14 flavors of fatayers (which she describes as Mediterranean empanadas). "My friends thought nobody would come because it was totally different," Abourezk says. "I proved them all wrong."

Abourezk grew up in Damascus, Syria. She studied agricultural engineering there and nutrition in California. When she moved to Sioux Falls in 1995, it was a much different place. Today, it's one of the Midwest's fastest growing cities, with strong medical and banking industries and a metro population just over 300,000. Hundreds of millions of dollars have fueled parks, greenways, downtown residences, public gathering spaces and mixed-use complexes. Those amenities have improved quality of life for locals and given travelers driving through South Dakota good reason to stop for more than just gas.