March 17, 2021

A Native American food truck’s expansion into a restaurant is weeks away from opening.

Watecha Bowl’s grand opening will be April 9 at 2305 W. Madison St., in the West Sioux neighborhood south of the Denny Sanford Premier Center.

The restaurant will serve as a “food truck on steroids,” owner Lawrence West said. It won’t have indoor seating but will have a few tables outside in the warmer weather. Customers can order Watecha’s signature Indian tacos from an express counter or other menu items such as buffalo burgers and fry bread cheese curds that will come out of the kitchen.

The goal will be to serve customers quickly, but “it’s still not fast food because we don’t use commercial food, everything is still ingredients made fresh, with fry bread made to every order.”

Watecha Bowl just marked its first anniversary, and West said in that time he has sold almost 40,000 Indian tacos, building a following with lunch and dinner outings and through events and festivals, even though many were limited because of the pandemic.

“Our goals and the business model that we set hasn’t changed one bit,” said West, who’s an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. “We’re still out here pushing the same (idea that) community is food, food is going to bring the community together. And that’s our goal – just keep introducing culture to the people through food because it’s working.”

The initial menu will be the same as the food truck’s has been, but West is planning to triple it by summertime once his kitchen crew is comfortable with the basic offerings.

“Buffalo ribs, buffalo chislic, full-time buffalo burgers, buffalo everything,” he said of expanded offerings. “Right now, we’re just pretty much working with the ground (buffalo meat) because it’s easier and just to get the people acclimated. … We’ll have more traditional stuff with the tripe and the buffalo and the more locally sourced everything, you know, ingredients, sage, rosemary, timpsula,” which is a wild prairie turnip used in Native cooking.

Customers will be able to order online for delivery or pickup, and Watecha will have three curbside pickup spots in front of the restaurant, West said. He’ll hire his own delivery drivers instead of using third-party services.

The restaurant will be open daily from noon to midnight.

With the restaurant’s full menu offerings, West said he’ll likely streamline the food truck’s menu to improve efficiency at events. The truck has only a handful of open dates for the upcoming season, he said. It’s booked for food truck gatherings, at businesses and apartment complexes, powwows and private events.

His wife, Sophie, will take over running the food truck with a crew, while he’ll manage the restaurant.

When West looks back at his journey to becoming a small-business owner, he’s amazed.

“I never imagined that I would be in the position that I am in, period. I started my journey making $9.50 an hour at Hardee’s and literally grew from that. … If you told me 15 years ago this is where I would be, I would have laughed you off.”

He sees the potential for Watecha to be more than just a Sioux Falls restaurant.

“Right now, it’s very mom-and-pop, it’s personal. … But in the future, I envision it very much like we’re the McDonald’s of Indian tacos. Over the course of the next 10 to 15 years, we’ll be in every state across the country.”