Pack Mule provides provisions

Pack Mule Provisions and Grocery has opened its doors at McGregor and Main in Hill City. Strategically situated below McGregor and Main Luxury Lofts, the artisan market is bringing a new concept to the Black Hills.

Co-owner Benjamin Klinkel said the location is meant to “be in good cooperation with the people who are renting upstairs.” The Pack Mule space is best defined as “a concept designed to go below living spaces to raise the value of the four walls rented above.” In Hill City the space above is nightly rentals.

Pack Mule can provide the nightly vacation rentals above with everything they need, not just for meals, or an extended stay,  but for dinner parties as well. 

“Everything can be brought up to them for a dinner party. We’ll put together charcuterie plates for them, seafood plates ... we’ve got bread, meats, cheese, all the things they need for a great dinner party,” Klinkel said.

He sees the units above being rented by tourists  or locals who want to get away, celebrate a special occasion or explore the Hills for a few nights without having to clean up after.

Pack Mule is essentially filling a niche market in the grocery industry.  

“This is kind of a farmers market store and our intention is to bring that feeling into an everyday reality,” Klinkel said. “It’s about being able to give a platform, a stage if you will, to artisan crafters that are out there, whether it’s this lady over here who has goats and makes her own cheese and lotions. We want to give them a stage even when it’s cold.”

His wife Morgan agrees. 

“We have a little bit of everything for everyone,” she said. “We have local products if you want to support the community. People who want to try something out of the ordinary, this is your place to go.”

Morgan is in charge of liquor and adult beverage ordering which includes the “coolest craft beers ever.”

“We have a peanut honey golden ale and a smores blonde ale,” she said.

The wine selection is  “fun and unique” focusing on “ wines that aren’t in  the Southern Hills so that people who are shopping at our stores can’t find them at other locations,” Morgan said. They also sell varieties popular in their restaurants, Delmonico Grill and Tally’s Silver Spoon.

People can find wines from all over the world including  California, Italy, Tasmania, India and  South Africa. 

Pack Mule also provides non-alcoholic beers, wines, ciders and seltzers, ginger beer as well as Coke and Pepsi products. They are sampling craft sodas in hopes of selling those soon too.

Customers can enjoy a glass of wine at the Perpendicular, a stand-up bar that overlooks the patio and Main Street. Pack Mule will  soon have its own private label wine coming out of California.

Pack Mule isn’t just about drinks. It sells a cornucopia of high end artisan groceries that no other market carries. From sardines to crackers, oils to pastas and meats to seafood, the store has high-end items to create a full dining experience.

“We just got in ravioli from a third generation pasta-making family in Little Italy,” said co-owner Viola Venner.

Venner creates relationships with local vendors and those selling high quality products,  

“If I see a product I really like,” Venner said, “I just find a way to bring it in. There are so many local products involved now  that other people are catching wind of it and starting to reach out to me.”

Pack Mule is all about quality. 

“We try to keep everything high end,” Venner said, showing off  a package of blue corn taco shells. “It makes taco night with your kids look and taste amazing.”

Almost all the winter vegetables are local, as are its greens and microgreens.

Twice a week the store brings in seafood from Dakota Seafood. Beef from various local ranches can also be found at Pack Mule.

“Pack Mule is really about raising the bar,” said Benjamin. “We saw we could do that with Tally’s and Delmonico in Rapid City. We want to create the demand for people who want just a little bit more out of their dining experience.”

He says it’s all about creating “a food culture, a hangout space that revolves around high-quality food or dining,” adding, “eating and cooking and dining is all about that community.”

The Perpendicular is a means to that end.

“The Perpendicular is taller than a normal bar would be,” Benjamin said. “The idea isn’t necessarily to park it and have a meal; it’s more of a hang out, have a quick bite and move about the store.We intend for people to be interested enough  by the products so that they’ll read the story on the back, learning about the artisanry that goes into them.”

The Pack Mule concept came to Klinkel during his sleep.  

“There’s a lot of throwback to the mule and donkey in this area,” Benjamin said. “It’s a recognizable character that screams ‘Midwest.’”

People will immediately notice the space—barnwood, concrete, cast iron and Edison bulbs. The verbiage in the store will include things like “cow juice, air tights or liquid courage.” 

“It is kind of a throwback to those rustic real times,” Benjamin said.

Morgan calls Pack Mule “much more than  a grocery store” and the team is figuring out how to offer workshops, classes and such similar to those it will host in its larger Rapid City location that will be below Elements Apartments downtown.

“We just have to figure out how it’s gonna work in our space,” Morgan said. 

The owners envision everything from tasting experiences to demos to floral-arranging classes.

Pack Mule is currently open seven days a week and has five full-time employees. The plan is to be open year-round.

“We’ll need the support of the community in order to do that,” Benjamin says.  “It’s got to be a community involvement thing. We’re really trying to provide stops along the way so that you can really make a day out of heading into the Hills even off season.”