Aug. 13, 2021

After starting out as a food truck in an old RV that looked like the one in “Breaking Bad,” Fat Kid Filly’s is opening a restaurant.

Cody Sauers and his wife, Amber, bought The Brewery in downtown Salem, which is just a few blocks from their home.

“We walked in and loved it,” he said.

They’re renaming it FatKid Saloon.

“Their last day is Aug. 21, and we’re shooting for a mid- to late-September opening,” Sauers said. “It will be a very brief closure. I’m calling it training. We’re not really changing anything (as far as remodeling).”

He’ll be learning how to make pizzas in the bar’s original 1961 pizza oven, including the sauce, which “is handed down only to owners,” Sauers said.

Much of The Brewery’s menu will remain, and it will expand, of course, to include the signature “Filly” sandwiches that Sauers introduced to the Sioux Falls area last year when the food truck opened.

Now, Fat Kid Filly fans will be able to enjoy a beer or a cocktail with their food. Sauers is especially excited about the bar’s freezer taps — of which there are only a couple in the state, he said — that dispense ice-cold beer.

While he’ll capitalize on having a full liquor license and offer bike nights with live music in the summer, he envisions special “white tablecloth” dinner nights “for people who don’t want to go in a bar and eat” and movie nights for families with “cheap popcorn and candy.” FatKid Saloon also will look for opportunities to give back to the community, Sauers said.

The Brewery, which has seating for more than 100 people, is open from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. and is closed a couple of days in the week, but that will change, Sauers said. FatKid Saloon will be open seven days a week from breakfast to late night.

“We really want to capitalize on bringing new food items and options to small-town Salem.”

The town is about a half-hour’s drive from the northwest edge of Sioux Falls, so “I think we’ll see people make the trip out to listen to live music, have a couple of beers,” he said.

The couple’s business has been growing steadily. In not much more than a year’s time, Fat Kid Filly expanded to include concessions at the Denny Sanford Premier Center, Sioux Falls Stadium and Huset’s Speedway. For a short time, they operated two food trucks, but they sold the original one as they started to head into the expanded concessions and brick-and-mortar options.

Fat Kid Filly’s has stopped taking bookings for this year, and next year the plan is to limit outings to larger events like Food Truck Tuesdays at Golf Addiction, he said.

“I still have a special place in my heart for the food truck business. It will be difficult for me to get fully out of it. Possibly in the future, but for now I don’t plan to stop the food truck.”

But he’s making room in his heart for his dream.

“We plan on having it a long time,” Sauers said of their venture in Salem. “It’s really our first one, so we’re going to treat it like it’s our baby.”