Because every restaurant is more than just what’s on the plate.

Location: 507 Main Street | Type: Breakfast and Lunch, Pay What You Can | Price: $

Down at 507 Main Street, in a small room with 17 seats, Rhonda Pearcy has been feeding Rapid City since 2017. You walk in, you read the menu, you order at the counter. You can pay the menu price. You can pay extra to leave a meal token behind for somebody who needs one. You can pay a three-dollar minimum if money’s tight. Or you can swap an hour of your time to volunteer.

That’s Fork Real, and it’s needed in more ways than you think.

Settling In

We got there around 9:15 on a Saturday morning. Other than an out-of-town couple that was just finishing up we were the only ones eating. Other downtown spots already had lines, though to be fair, this was only the second Saturday Fork Real has been open on a weekend. Once word gets out, I’m confident the room will hit capacity.

The room is small but bright with for sale art on the wall and a comfortable lay out. One volunteer was running the floor as our server, friendly and easygoing, and she said good morning the moment we walked in. There’s care in here. You can feel it as soon as you sit down. The whole thing has the feel of a good idea that worked out exactly the way somebody hoped it would.

A Place Like This, Right Now

Groceries are up about 40 percent since 2020, according to the Food Industry Association. The USDA is projecting another 3.2 percent climb at the store this year, with restaurants tacking on 3.5 percent. Beef is running over 12 percent higher than last year. If you’ve been to a grocery store lately, none of that is news to you.

Closer to home, a study released this past September by the Black Hills Area Community Foundation found roughly 14,250 people in Pennington County living with food insecurity, with about 34,000 residents in Rapid City inside what the study calls a food desert. A lot of neighbors are skipping meals or stretching what they have.

Fork Real is part of a national network called One World Everybody Eats, with more than 60 similar cafés around the country. Nobody at the counter asks you to prove what you can or can’t afford.

On the Plate

We ordered pancakes, the lemon blueberry crepes, the Asian vegetable omelette, and coffee. The coffee was good, plain black, with just a hint of Highlander Grogg. I’m pretty sure I know where it came from. Again, local. 

The omelettes just became a permanent part of the menu, and I’m glad they’ll stay. 

The lemon blueberry crepes were the star of the table. Bright lemon, real blueberries, sweet without going sticky. The pancakes, made completely from scratch, were perfect. As for the omelette, the Asian vegetables made it different from anything else on a breakfast menu in town. It was just a good breakfast made by people who care about you eating well.

The Pull

While eating, you think about whether an extra ten bucks tonight would mean somebody else’s breakfast tomorrow. By the time the plates are cleared, you’re already figuring out how much you want to leave behind.

The company that pays me to write this column let me pay it forward at the counter on their behalf. The call was mine, but I know that’s exactly what our leadership would have wanted. Being part of the community looks like a lot of things, and sometimes it looks like a few extra meals waiting on the wall for whoever walks in next.

You automatically get caught up in wanting to help. You almost can’t help it. Nobody at Fork Real is selling that feeling. It just lives in the room.

Victoria’s Taste

“This is one of those places you have to visit. The food is made from scratch and beyond affordable, but the feeling you walk out with is hard to explain. It’s the kind of feeling that can carry you through your whole day.”

Final Bite

Fork Real has food as good as anywhere downtown, and a counter that bends to whatever your wallet looks like today. Once more people learn the doors are open on Saturdays, those 17 seats won’t stay empty.

If you haven’t been, go. Order the crepes. Leave a few extra dollars or pay for a token that you can leave at the counter or take with you to give to someone who may be struggling to get a bite to eat that day. That’s how a good thing keeps going in a town that needs it.