Brookings restaurant wins national historic preservation grant

Recognition for Pheasant Restaurant & Lounge comes one year after James Beard award for cuisine

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the Pheasant’s James Beard award.

The oldest full-service restaurant in Brookings has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express.

Pheasant Restaurant & Lounge will receive the grant as part of the Backing Historic Small Restaurants program by the trust and American Express. The award was announced on Monday morning.

The Pheasant Restaurant & Lounge opened in 1949, first as a small gas station café. But it’s far from that today. Last year, the restaurant earned the James Beard Classics Award for restaurants in the Midwest, a region that includes the Dakotas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin. It is family owned, now in its third generation.