July 3, 2025

Jon Oppold has always been determined.

When he was a teenager, he really wanted a car. His family had an extra one – an old Chevy Cavalier, busted down and sitting next to the house.

“Fix that up and it’s yours,” he remembers his mom telling him.

The thing with Oppold is you only have to tell him once. He got a job at Burger King, hitched rides to and from with a friend who also worked there and slowly saved the money and learned the skills to fix the car.

He got new tires. Bought an alternator. Called a friend’s dad to come over and show him what an alternator was and how to install it. Rebuilt the car bit by bit and paycheck by paycheck.

After about eight months, he had his own ride to work.

So when Oppold posted on LinkedIn recently that he was looking for opportunities to lead in Sioux Falls – boards to serve on, areas to influence – those who know him knew it wouldn’t take long for him to find the right fit.

He has served in the past – on the Orpheum board before it changed hands, for the events center and for Sioux Falls Synergy before the Young Professionals Network. But now, he’s hoping his business experience and expertise can help others.

Oppold owns Sunny’s Pizzeria in central Sioux Falls and The Orion Pub downtown.

“Here I am, five years into running a business that’s been pretty successful,” Oppold said. “I’ve been able to turn the pizza thing into a pizza and a bar thing, and now it’s a pizza and a bar with wholesale distribution of the pizzas.”

Sunny’s distributes pizza to 22 additional locations through wholesale.

It’s a success story that started on a walk through the neighborhood.

Getting started

Oppold was born in Sioux Falls, but his parents moved to Tea when rural development loans made housing attainable there. He went to Wayne State College in Nebraska for sports management and then got a job with the Sioux Falls Canaries.

He discovered he liked the artsy parts of his job the best, so he pursued a master’s degree in organizational management and began a career in sales, marketing and graphic design. He worked for Sanford Heath through its Profile brand and also did freelance design work.

“Graphic design is like accounting, where you can really sell your time and services,” said Oppold, ever the businessman. “Why wouldn’t I take on projects? People were always asking me – they needed a new logo or a business card, and I was like, sure, why not.”

In 2012, Oppold and his wife moved into a ranch house with no basement near Christ the King Church in central Sioux Falls.

“We had Sunny, our dog, and we would take him for walks and pass by that laundromat,” he said. That vacant laundromat was on 26th Street and Walts Avenue. “I had known about it forever, but it had never occurred to me that it was right across from a college. I just thought: This is goofy. This should be a pizza place or a bookstore or a coffeeshop.”

Fast forward to July 2019, and he and his wife have four boys and they’re wandering around the University of Sioux Falls campus playing Pokemon. “I looked across the street, and there was a sign in the window, and I said, ‘We should check that out.’”

He, his wife and their sons were about to embark on a two-week vacation. The boys are all adopted through foster care, and their trip would take them to see some of their birth family in North Dakota, more family in the Twin Cities and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

“It gave me time to really do a deep dive and look everything up,” Oppold said. He did his homework and signed a letter of intent, working with Nelson Commercial Real Estate. “Ron (Nelson) was so helpful getting me where I needed to be,” Oppold said. “There were a million things we needed to do.”

They had to get a liquor license. They had to make sure neighbors would be on board with their plan. They had to talk with the Planning Commission and City Council.

“We went and knocked on doors, and we let people know about the pizza place,” he said. He gave his notice at Sanford and took the leap of faith that ultimately would become Sunny’s Pizzeria – named after their dog.

“It was so financially irresponsible at the time,” he said. “I stuck all my money into it and opened it with no debt, and somehow we made it through COVID. We started doing wholesale and figured out that would be lucrative and cooked that into the plans.”

And then, as it seems to happen with Oppold, another perfect opportunity showed up.

This time, it was Thomas Hentges.

“He was a bar manager, so he would come in during lunch. For the first few years of Sunny’s, I worked every lunch hour. I would see Thomas quite a bit, and we would watch a replay of the Timberwolves or Twins and talk about theoretical plans for a bar,” Oppold said.

“He had this idea, and I had this idea, and we got to talking.”

Turns out, it was basically the same idea: a classic Upper Midwestern pub, with great music and Minnesota sports on the televisions. Through his wholesale gig, Oppold connected with the co-owner of Glacial Lakes Distillery, who mentioned looking at a space adjacent to its downtown bar but deciding it wasn’t right for what they wanted.

Oppold called Hentges.

“We met at TapHouse 41 in the middle of winter, and we talked for like three hours about this bar concept,” Oppold said. At the end of the meeting, they decided to go for it.

Oppold had learned valuable lessons from opening Sunny’s. He and Hentges worked opposite shifts to get the space ready – painting at night and working with Hentges’ stepdad.

“We took this trip to Minneapolis to get all the booths and tables I had bought at an auction,” Oppold said. “It’s from Stella’s Fish Cafe, which had closed. We loaded it all up, and a blizzard hit, and it took us forever to get home.”

The Orion Pub opened in June 2023.

It feels like it’s been there forever, and that’s exactly what Oppold wanted. He wanted spaces that felt baked into the very fabric of Sioux Falls. Businesses that celebrate the community – you can see that with the mural of local “famous faces” painted on the side of Sunny’s or the “founders” lists on both business websites, thanking people who invested in them early on. He creates spaces that are intimate, no frills and yet still comfortable and warm.

And now, he wants to give back.

“I’m just looking to get a little more involved,” Oppold said, noting that the time commitment it takes to get a business up and running, not to mention raising four boys, didn’t leave a lot of room to serve. But now there’s more time. “I just want to share what I’ve learned, and it’s a good way to make connections.”

Giving back

Oppold said it seems like he either knows people who serve a lot or not at all, and he doesn’t know the best way to get involved. He realized if he was wondering this, other professionals might be too.

And because he isn’t shy, he put out a call on LinkedIn for advice.

“I feel like I have this unique perspective, and I have enough experience where I could help. I’ve always enjoyed my time on boards – I get to dip my toes in these other projects without having to do it full time. You can come in with a fresh set of eyes and be involved,” Oppold said.

“Maybe someone who has a board opening will think I’m a good fit,” he said, noting that he thinks boards need a diversity of perspective and life experiences. “We’re all different.”

The philosophy is baked into his business – the Sunny’s website says, “When we work together, we can make sure Sioux Falls stays awesome.”

Ultimately, his hope is to just come up a bit out of the fog of raising kids and starting businesses and reconnect to the business community.

“This entrepreneur thing can be lonely,” he said. “There are those of us who want to serve, and there’s no process for how to figure out how to do that. I feel like I’m at the point where I have the time to do stuff.”

He said there are many people his age – 39 – who believe in staying connected to community. And there’s good reason to keep them engaged locally. He’s passionate about small neighborhood businesses, zoning and helping young business owners.

“A city needs to try to cultivate the next generation of leaders,” Oppold said.