By Brian Hernandez
Most folks who expand their restaurant dream of a bigger space. Maybe a downtown corner spot with a patio, an airport kiosk, or even a shiny second location across town. Sean Dempsey? He looked at a hallway in a hockey rink and said, “Yup, that’s the one.”
Welcome to Danger von Dempsey’s on Ice, the newest, weirdest and most wonderfully chaotic offshoot of Dempsey’s Brewery Pub & Restaurant in Watertown, South Dakota. Or as Dempsey put it, “Surprisingly, yes, we are adding the smallest possible location inside the local Ice Arena—the second floor hallway. We had a soft open on Friday (September 12), and now we are fully open.”
This is expansion the way MacGyver would do it—give Dempsey some duct tape, three portable ovens, and a hallway with decent foot traffic, and he’ll turn it into a functioning pizza shop before the first puck drops.
Related: Think You Know Your Dough? Take PMQ’s Pizza Dough Quiz and Prove It!
From Brewery Roots to Hockey Boots
Dempsey’s Brewery Pub & Restaurant isn’t just another neighborhood bar. It’s the second-oldest brewery in South Dakota, a scratch kitchen cranking out pizzas, sandwiches and house-brewed beers. Dempsey’s culinary passport includes a stint at the International School of Pizza, where he earned the title of “Pizzaiola,” and he’s logged miles as a long-time member of PMQ’s U.S. Pizza Team, flipping pies and competing on international stages.
But why a hallway in an ice arena? Because this is Watertown, South Dakota, Dempsey said. “Hockey is massive in our town. It’s the No. 1 sport by a mile.”
The Shamrocks, a junior hockey team in the NAHL, brought the brand-new Prairie Lakes Ice Arena to life. And with it came one glaring issue: a concession stand that couldn’t keep up with demand. Fans didn’t just want nacho cheese and hot dogs. They wanted real food. They wanted Dempsey’s.
A Hallway, Three Ovens, and 1,500 Hungry Fans
The footprint of this “restaurant” is almost comically small. “We have about 27 feet long and about 6 feet deep for our entire footprint. No seats—this is a burn-and-turn operation,” Dempsey said.
Every Shamrocks game last season sold out, packing all 1,500 seats, and on game night the hallway turns into a conveyor belt of hungry families, kids clattering through in their skates with root beer in hand, and die-hard hockey fans looking for fuel. To meet that demand, Dempsey leaned into the portable revolution.
“It’s a trip,” he says. “So we’re running three Ooni’s out there, to juggle between them as we burn and turn. Being able to time out the [ovens’] recovering time to use again and maintain that solid crust and undercarriage bake—it’s a challenge but fun.”
For now, the menu is stripped down to the essentials. “For the initial run, we’re offering single-topping pies and house DBC brews,” Dempsey said. But you know he’s not gonna stop there. “We plan on expanding and doing more unique items to tie in with the Shamrocks games—like Boxty pancakes or Cottage Pie on certain game days, like St. Patrick’s Day. We also plan to create a few Shamrock-specific pizzas as well.”
On the beverage side, they roll deep: three DBC house brews on tap and the wildly popular Rampant Lion Root Beer. “Kids love that sugar!” Dempsey laughed.
This being a city-owned facility, serving alcohol comes with some municipal gymnastics. “It’s under city control, so we have things we can and can’t do,” Dempsey explained. “One—I can’t ‘sell’ you a beer, but you can get one with a token bought at the token booth. I also have to pair beers with food items. You want a beer by itself? Can’t do it. You want a beer plus a pizza? Sure—charge for the pizza, and a token for the beer.”
Business on Ice
So is this a vanity project, a labor of love, or a legit profit center? “All of the above,” Dempsey said. “We’re projecting about $1,500 a game—so I’m hoping to add about $50,000 to the bottom line at the end of the season at minimum,” he said. The deal with the city and the Shamrocks is pretty friendly: $100 rent per event, plus 10% of sales over $1,000. Sell $1,000, you owe nothing. Sell $2,000, you owe $100. Not bad for a hockey-night hustle.
“It’s also kinda fun,” Dempsey added. “We have an ATY airport location open daily. We have this small hallway shop opening for hockey. I enjoy the challenge of making them work.”
Unlike the seven-days-a-week grind of the main brewpub, this rink gig is short and sweet. “We plan on being open for every game, so you’re talking 30-35 games a year, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.—a real light schedule,” Dempsey said.
That schedule is part of the draw. “For us, it pairs the love of watching hockey with the love of making pizzas in a super fast-paced environment. And the extra money,” he added. But the idea wasn’t a stroke of random inspiration. “We have a sponsorship with the Shamrocks already, so this was brought up, and we were like, hell, yeah.”
When the rink’s concession crew couldn’t keep up, the arena came knocking. “In this day and age, people are looking for as many options as possible,” Dempsey explained. “So for us, this is another win-win—the arena gets more options, and we not only get to advertise ourselves to the town and the visiting section, we get to watch the game. Well, maybe,” he added with a laugh.
Even in a stripped-down setup, Dempsey won’t compromise on quality. Dough is still made the day before, transported to the rink, and baked with care. “It’s going to come down to knowing the oven and being able to make adjustments as needed,” he said. “Initially, with only three single-topping pies, it shouldn’t be bad. As we add more, it will become a bit more of a learning curve.”
Consistency, he knows, is king. And if anyone can wrangle three Ooni ovens into producing competition-level crusts in a hallway, it’s a guy who’s competed on the world pizza stage. Dempsey’s time with the U.S. Pizza Team has taken him to Italy and beyond, and this rink gig might seem like a step down from international spotlights. But in his mind, it’s all part of the same mission: push boundaries, have fun and never stop innovating.
“Every Shamrock game, any event that seems like it will be worthwhile—we’ll be there. No rest for the wicked,” he said.
And just in case anyone thinks this hallway hustle is risk-free, Dempsey left us with one final thought: “I think we’ll have a solid space that we can continue to grow the brand and help solve some problems. Or we will burn down the ice arena. Hopefully not the case.”
Brian Hernandez is PMQ’s associate editor and director of the U.S. Pizza Team.
