April 27, 2022

A Sioux Falls-area food truck owner and concessions operator has been chosen for a competitive docuseries that leads to investment funding for entrepreneurs.

Cody Sauers of Salem, who owns Fat Kid Filly’s with wife Amber, will head to Kansas City in late August to participate in “The Blox.”

It’s the creation of reality TV personality Weston Bergmann, a contestant on MTV’s “The Real World: Austin” and “The Challenge” who also founded a business incubator in Kansas City. The show blends elements of “The Real World” – entrepreneurs live together – with “Shark Tank” – as they compete and pitch their ideas.

“The biggest thing I’m excited for is the experience to be around other entrepreneurs, whether they’re just starting out or going for 10 years, just to be around them and get to learn things we don’t know,” Sauers said.

Earlier this year, another Sioux Falls startup, Cash Cow Co-op, participated in the first season of the show. Co-founders Damon Brown and Kristine Reiner didn’t win any investor money but said the connections they made were invaluable.

Sauers’ business, Fat Kid Filly’s, has grown from its start two years ago in a 1986 RV that he gutted and rebuilt, gaining a following with his “Filly” spin on a Philly cheesesteak. It expanded into other ventures, some that have been successful, and others that didn’t work out.

The couple added concessions contracts at venues such as the Denny Sanford Premier Center and Huset’s Speedway that continue to grow with the addition of Jackson Motorplex in Jackson, Minnesota. They operated kitchens for a short time in a couple of small-town bars before taking over a bar and grill in Salem. FatKid Saloon, however, closed within six months.

“We found out we didn’t want to be in the bar business,” Sauers said. “We liked the brick-and-mortar but not the bar scene … just because that’s not what we’re into.”

Now, Sauers is refocusing on their roots.

After selling the original food truck and a second unit they added last year, he’s busy converting a former school bus into a food truck so it will be ready for Fat Kid’s first bookings in early May.

“If we do something as crazy as converting a school bus, it will stick out a little better in the crowd,” he said.

Its unique look will help. He’s planning to paint it black and then let their four kids use it as a canvas for their spray-painted designs.

“We’re just going to let the kids go crazy with orange and probably green, red and blue on a black truck, and I’ll do the logo.”

The public debut for the new food truck will be at the first Food Truck Tuesday on May 10 at Golf Addiction.

Sauers still sees the future of Fat Kid Filly’s in a brick-and-mortar location but in more of a PepperJax or Qdoba style than a bar.

“At the end of the day, we still are planning on having a brick-and-mortar location in Sioux Falls by the end of the year,” he said. “We have a few different opportunities, and we’re just trying to lay out the best situation for us. If you go brick-and-mortar, you’re going to be married to that. It scares us a little to move away from that because we love the food truck.”

He’s looking forward to the insights for the business’ future that he’ll gain from being part of “The Blox.”

“Experience and knowledge is everything,” Sauers said. “I believe that if you surround yourself with five broke people, you will be the sixth broke person. If you’re around five multimillionaires, you’ll be the sixth.”