Jan. 4, 2022

Native American restaurant Watecha Bowl is bringing back its roots this year with the return of the original food truck.

Owners Lawrence and Sophie West also are planning to operate a second food truck that will be used for bigger events locally and on the powwow circuit in the region.

And at their restaurant on West Madison Street, they’re hoping to grow, taking over the adjacent space in the retail center to add seating, as they expand their menu from signature Indian tacos into more entrees featuring buffalo meat.

Part of the return to the food truck scene wasn’t exactly planned. They ended up repossessing their original truck, which operated for a few weeks last fall under new owners as The Sloppy Weiner until it was damaged in a hit-and-run accident.

“We did the demolition,” West said. “We got the electricians in there working on it. And once we get it rebuilt, we got to take it over to Justice to get a new fire suppression system put in and stuff just to make sure that we’re up with the 2022 food truck codes, and then my full intent is to open somewhere on the southeast side. If I can either buy a plot, rent the plot, partner with a new brewery, business, whatever we need to do, and just have that spot stationary, and we would run essentially March through September, weather permitting.”

The second food truck, which is parked behind the restaurant, most recently was Fat Kid Filly’s, which instead is focusing on its Salem bar and grill, the kitchen it runs at On the Rocks in Valley Springs and its concession contracts at places such as the Denny Sanford Premier Center and Huset’s Speedway.

West is already putting the smoker on the trailer to work, making buffalo ribs.

“This year I will run this new food truck up, and we’ll do essentially what is Watecha Bowl barbecue. We’ll do smoked brisket, buffalo meat — steaks, brisket, ribs — everything like fried sweet corn, smoked squash. It will have other options, like you can get it on like regular bread if you want it on regular bread, but we still will have the fry bread. I mean, that’s what we sell, that’s what we do. We sell fry bread. … We’re going to kind of just expand and capitalize on that buffalo menu because nobody has that. It doesn’t matter if you’re a five-star restaurant or a one-star restaurant, in a 10- to 13-state radius, nobody’s offering what we’re offering.”

He’s excited about getting back on the food truck scene.

“I’ve never been coy about the fact that I’m not a chef. I’m a regular dude. I just love cooking, so to me it’s humbling like to see people react, to have that opportunity again. To me, it was more of a blessing to be able to go out and be with the people again; because in the expansion in this past year, that’s the one thing that I longed for was the personal connection. I love expanding my business, but there’s nothing like coming here to work in my restaurant. It makes me emotional. This is my home. These are my people.”

His dream is to take the former Fat Kid Filly’s trailer on the powwow circuit this summer.

“We’re going to travel,” said West, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. “We’re going to take the dogs and just go be about family and hit the powwow trail and just soak in the medicine and just be amongst the people and just do what we can to help. That’s all we aim to do is like feed people.”

West acknowledges that those plans can change. He witnessed that in March 2020 as he started the food truck just as the COVID-19 pandemic was reaching Sioux Falls. Plans to be on the powwow circuit dissipated as events were canceled. Watecha Bowl’s following grew though as West served up Indian taco after Indian taco while parked along Madison Street and other locations across the city.

The Wests opened the restaurant in April 2021 and bought another food truck in the summer but eventually sold both to focus on the restaurant and opening The Whiskey House in Freeman. They bought a building in the town 45 miles southwest of Sioux Falls and planned to start a bar and restaurant with a couple of vacation rental or apartment units on the second floor. They opened the bar and restaurant but quickly realized it wasn’t feasible to be in that many locations, especially given the amount of time it would take to build a customer base in a community where they had no other ties.

Remodeling work continues on the rental units. West isn’t sure yet whether he’ll try to find an operator for the bar and restaurant or turn the entire building into apartments.

There were other ups and downs in the past year. Plans for the first franchise location in Arizona fell through. Watecha Bowl opened a second location in a mall in Norfolk, Nebraska, which “is going as good as opening up a new business with no research in a demographic of people you don’t know. … We’re growing every day,” West said.

Watecha Bowl was featured on “Good Morning America” in July as part of a report on South Dakota businesses that continued to operate through the pandemic.

“2021 has been a full year. I lived a lot; I learned a lot. It’s had its ups and downs. But it’s the first year in my entire existence that I’ve ever lived life to the fullest. And at the end of the year, I walk away with a lot of things that aren’t monetary, just things to prepare me for the longevity of what I’m creating.”