Corner Bar & Grill in Timber Lake Promotes Local Beef, Community

If you’re ever around the Timber Lake, S.D., area, and looking for a bite to eat, be sure to stop by the Corner Bar & Grill. They not only serve locally raised beef, but also are helping to keep the Timber Lake community thriving by providing valuable jobs.

Timber Lake only has a population of 509 residents, but has a strong local agricultural base, making it a perfect spot to promote local beef.

“The beef is sourced from Maher Cattle, outside of Timber Lake, and the burgers are delicious,” said Corrine Huber, one of the 15 family owners that make up the  Timber Lake Investment Group, LLC.  

Uniting Behind a Common Cause

The previous restaurant in Timber Lake had closed during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the community had not had an eating or gathering place since. Business people traveling through or to Timber Lake had nowhere to dine. The previous owner was looking to sell the property as an entire business or sell the restaurant equipment.

“One evening, a few friends and I were chatting and the topic of the café came up,” said Richard Gross, president of the Timber Lake Investment Group. “We discussed the importance of a bar and grill in small towns and how complicated it is for someone young to get started in that business without a consistent track record of income to prove its feasibility.”

Gross and his friends found 10 families willing to donate to the investment fund within a week, and five more families stepped up to join in by the time the corporation was formed. These families all wanted to be part of something and give back to the community.

“I assured everyone that there are a lot better ways to invest and the chances of getting their money back or even making a little are slim,” Gross said. “In my eyes, we have the best group of people you could ever assemble, period! That’s just one attribute to the kind of people we have in Timber Lake.”

Pat Maher, with Maher Cattle that supplies the beef to the restaurant, is also one of the investors and serves on the board of directors for Timber Lake Investment Group. The investment group purchased the property in May 2023 and opened for business in July the same year. A total of $165,000 was invested in getting Corner Bar & Grill up and running.

The board of directors for the investment group meets regularly. Timber Lake Investment Group meets as a whole less frequently, but still on a regular basis. During those meetings, the group works through problems and floats ideas, while also discussing how to bring those ideas to fruition. The annual testicle festival came out of one of those meetings, from Rusty Gebhardt, investor, who modeled the event after a similar event he learned about in North Dakota.

Huber manages marketing for the Corner Bar & Grill, including a Facebook page, sidewalk billboard right in the town of Timber Lake, and ads in the local paper.

Community Hangout

Corner Bar & Grill serves three meals daily.

Burgers are 1/3 pound and steaks are hand cut, certified Black Angus and are either home-raised by Maher Cattle or purchased within a 50-mile radius of Timber Lake.

The beef menu includes hamburgers, cheeseburgers, bacon cheeseburgers, a mushroom and Swiss burger and a patty melt. Dinners, served from 5-9 pm, include an 8 ounce hamburger steak, beef sirloin, beef ribeye and steak tips. Prime rib is periodically served.

“We’ve received lots of positive comments from customers about the steak tips, in particular,” Huber said.

Corner Bar & Grill employs 17 people from the Timber Lake area, and the cooks are all locals. The restaurant has special nights where the investors cook. For example, prime rib nights are where one of the investors will come in and cook the steaks and serve them with other fixings.

At the testicle festival, while the meat may be served free, patrons can buy other menu items to go with their meal. The restaurant also hosted an Oktoberfest in the fall, taking advantage of their liquor license. Weekly bingo is held on Wednesday and Saturday nights, and has a large following of both adults and young people, according to Huber. Other fun events hosted by the restaurant include a National Finals Rodeo (NFR) watch party and Christmas customer appreciation night.

In August 2024, Corner Bar & Grill hosted a free community fish fry, with some of the investors providing the fish. Timber Lake Investment Group is looking to make that an annual event.

“We called it ‘Rods & Reels,’ and invited the community to bring their hot rods for a car show,” Huber said. “It was a great opportunity for the community to gather, enjoy food and beverages and spend time together.”

Other investors chip in by helping with the behind the scenes work, such as book work, closing cash every day, advertising and other tasks.

Providing Jobs

Like many small and rural businesses today, staffing has proved to be a challenge, according to Huber. There may be a window of time where a position is open until someone can be found to fill it. Several local teenagers are employed by the restaurant, and are learning valuable business and customer service skills. In addition, many adults work as servers. The investment group works with the local school teachers to find out which teens might be interested in applying to work.

“We’ve even had teens who were cooks, and they’ve done an awesome job,” Huber said. “We’re working on training more people in that area.”

“We plan to keep moving forward and hosting more special events,” Huber said. “We’re putting together a prime rib night, and our second annual testicle festival is coming up.”