How one man’s goal of supporting restaurants grew to a group of thousands

Travis Freeborn wasn’t going to let his favorite restaurants close before he tried to do something about it.

He remembers the day it all started: March 17, 2020.

“I’m pretty sure a bunch of restaurants in town started closing their dine-in room,” said Freeborn, who grew up in Iowa and came to Sioux Falls for jobs in production at multiple media outlets.

“I grew up in a small town, like 10,000 people, and there wasn’t a whole lot to do as a kid,” he said. “But if we wanted to do something for entertainment, we would go out to eat.”

Coming to Sioux Falls, where he now works as a press operator in screen printing, “there are hundreds of restaurants, and as I’ve gotten older, it’s something I still enjoy doing.”

So he worried, back in March, that he might have eaten his last meal at some of his favorite places. And he was concerned for the employees whose jobs might be in jeopardy.

“That was my fear,” he said. “So I was trying to think of something to do.”

A few clicks later and he was the founder of the Facebook group Sioux Falls Dine, Delivery and Takeout, which encouraged restaurants and diners to talk about their offerings and experiences.

The idea was inspired by a similar group in his wife, Lisa’s, hometown of Le Mars, Iowa.

“I wanted people to be able to show what restaurants have to offer,” he said.

As first, “there wasn’t a lot of activity,” he said. “And I wanted to make sure the group grew, so I’m pretty sure I spammed the group on my lunch break at work.”

He tried to “like” a lot of restaurant pages so he would see their posts and then shared them to the group “to make people aware of what was going on.”

That went on for a couple of weeks, but after about three weeks, “it started to really blow up,” he said. “It went up to maybe 3,000 members, and that’s when people started posting pictures of their takeout or if there was a really good deal.”

Another few weeks went by, and 3,000 more group members joined.

Papa Woody’s Wood Fired Pizza, a downtown pizza restaurant, was an early beneficiary as Freeborn learned when he did his own online order.

“They recognized my name and said, ‘That group you made is crazy.’ They couldn’t keep up and thanked me for creating the group, so I knew they got a lot of exposure,” he said. “And then it snowballed.”

Freeborn was committed to keeping the group a positive place, despite the inclination of people to share negative experiences online.

“I understand that people have negative experiences, but the purpose of me creating the group was to make sure restaurants were staying in business,” he said. “I didn’t want to do anything that would hurt the business. I wanted it to be good PR or advertising.”

Today, the Facebook group totals more than 13,000 followers.

But Freeborn isn’t among them.

He deactivated his account about a month ago.

“It was nothing that had to do with the group. The group was the one thing keeping me in,” he said.

But the increasingly polarizing nature of social media “was wearing on me,” he continued. “It was constant division. Every day. So I got to a breaking point being burned out with Facebook and decided for my personal mental health to step away.”

That felt possible because others agreed to step in.

Freeborn found several moderators whom he said share his vision for the positive nature of the group.

“I just wanted to make sure this group was a way to get away from all the negative talk and arguing and debating you know you already see,” he said.

Meet the moderators

The Sioux Falls Dine, Delivery and Takeout group moderators all are local people, though they’ve never met each other in person. And each brings a unique perspective to the group

Jessica Davenport is a wife and mom of three who calls herself a “brewer’s wife and a celiac mom.”

Their daughter was diagnosed with celiac disease at 18 months, so “food has been a huge focus for our family as we have had to navigate the gluten-free world for her,” she said.

She has worked in health care for more than a decade.

Being married to a business owner in the brewing industry, “I can relate and see how important it is to have the support from our community, now more than ever with COVID,” she said.

She first posted a photo of her brunch from All Day Cafe with a glass of chocolate milk from Stensland Family Farms in April and continued to review places during 2020.

She also sparked a conversation about favorite sandwiches from Bagel Boy and touted CH Patisserie for its gluten-free options.

She also discovered a new favorite through the group, take-and-bake family meals from Ruthann’s.

”I found out her chicken and pork enchiladas are gluten-free,” she said. It was nice to find a local homemade take-and-bake option if you are having a busy day but still want to present a meal at dinner.”

When Freeborn asked for help moderating, she reached out, and he said, “Absolutely, I’m glad you asked,” she said. “Your reviews are great, and I know you definitely know what this group is about.”

Sam Allen, a security supervisor at Avera Behavioral Health, is one of Davenport’s counterparts. He and his wife have two dogs, and he also reached out when Freeborn asked for help moderating.

“I have previous experience with these types of groups and understand how stressful it is for just one or two people to manage,” he said. “I really enjoy it. A good portion of the restaurants that are discussed or marketed on this forum I had never heard of prior to joining this group. It’s amazing to see everything I’ve been missing out on.”

He estimates he spends three or four hours a day going through posts and comments to make sure they comply with group rules.

And there’s a lot to wade through, with the group averaging about 1,000 posts, comments or reactions daily.

“During the Downtown Burger Battle, that was roughly 80 percent of the posts I observed,” Allen said. “Prior to that, it was sushi and Oriental foods.”

When Poke Picks opened, “it was all over the group,” he added. “There was a different post about them almost every few hours, multiple people commenting they only tried it because of the reviews in the group. It is incredible seeing the trust and rapport that are built just from a food recommendation.”

Stay-at-home dad Brendan Gallagher rounds out the moderating team. He’s a 17-year Sioux Falls resident, Army veteran and “a proud nerd,” he said.

“I became an admin about five months into the group going up,” he said. “Travis needed an admin as the population kind of blew up.”

Gallagher also had experience moderating Facebook groups, calling it “almost like a full-time hobby if I’m being honest,” he said. “With Sam and Jess, it’s much better. It helps that we all get along, and we like to discuss any major changes and stuff. They’re good people, and I am glad to have them at the admin table with me.”

People still are consistently joining the group, he added.

“It’s the group that never sleeps,” he said. “There’s a lot of different folks in the group with different tastes and favorites. Honestly, every post in the group seems to get a lot of eyes on it, which is good. People want good food, and especially now during the times we’re enduring, we see a lot of people not just looking for good food but safe environments.”

And while the food matters, people respond to friendly service too, he said.

“You see that a lot in our group, people happy they went somewhere because the staff and environment were friendly and welcoming in addition to safe, tasty and fairly priced.”

A sampling of recent photos posted to the group.

Post-pandemic, the administrators say they expect the group to keep going strong.

“A lot of people, including myself, are going to be super ready to go out and safely socialize and get some good chow,” Gallagher said. “Our group post-pandemic is going to help a lot of folks decide where they want to go and catch up with other folks they haven’t seen since March of 2020.”

As for Freeborn, he still keeps up on the group through his wife, who remains a member.

“I love that group,” he said, adding that while his family tries to stick to a budget, they have made an effort to support restaurants since he started the group.

“Every other weekend, we pick a new place, which has been great,” he said. “We’re big bar-and-grill people, anyplace that’s got a good burger and a beer is our go-to.”

And while he’ll never know for sure what a difference his group made for restaurants going through a historically tough time, he has a sense it made a positive impact.

“I like to think so,” he said. “In a way, I would say I forced it to in the way I moderated a lot of posts and comments, but at the same time, I don’t know a whole lot of places that closed during COVID.”

Want to join the group? You can find it here.