By Norma Dittman
Murray County News staff writer
As of November 1st, Slayton’s Key Largo Bar and Restaurant, located on the shores of beautiful Lake Shetek came under the new ownership of Frank DeVries. Originally from Orange City, Iowa, DeVries attended Northwestern College for two years.
After college he worked in sales. For seven years he worked for Walmart and remembers helping to open that store in Yankton, SD. “That was 25 years ago,” DeVries recalled. “I was an assistant manager. When I left there, I got my first job as a restaurant manager at the Happy Chef in Yankton. I had absolutely no food experience of any kind, but I had managerial experience and they had a great training program. What I discovered was that I like food. It’s kind of my passion. I like working with flavor and flavor profiles and textures.”
DeVries’ story unfolds as he talks about his restaurant, A Touch of Dutch, located in Beresford, SD. “It’s a family-style restaurant that is under good management and I can be here at Key Largo and check in there and know all is well,” DeVries said.
When asked how he came to be the new owner of Key Largo Bar and Restaurant, he said, “I have a good friend – for fifty years – since age 5 – and I have another good friend – 53 years. At my wife, Jan’s, funeral, the three of us decided that we needed to do something together besides funerals. It seems like that was when we were getting together with one another. One of the friends said he had a campground in southwestern Minnesota and that we should get together there. I came up for a week in August to visit. I had no intention of buying anything. As you can tell, that’s not going so good for me,” DeVries said with a chuckle.
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