Sept. 20, 2019

A new food truck in Sioux Falls that serves Philly cheesesteaks as its signature item has roots in Beresford.

Co-owner James “Jimmy” Madsen discovered The Bus Stop Grill last summer at a car show in Hurley. He ordered a sandwich and thought it was so good that he decided “I’m going to go back and get another one to bring home.”

He told the owner how much he liked the Philly. “It’s a good thing, you got it,” Madsen recalls the owner saying. “It’s our last gig.”

The couple were moving and planning to dissolve the business and sell the trailer, but Madsen ended up buying The Bus Stop Grill with a partner, J.J. Otruba.

They renamed the business Uncle JJ’s and Papa Jimmy’s Neighborhood Grill after inviting Madsen’s neighbors over to test food for the menu.

“We actually taste-tested for two weeks straight starting with the recipe of the people who originally had this thing,” Madsen said. “We wanted to play with it, tweak it, make it ours.”

Neighborhood Grill started booking events in July. It’s not a full-time operation – Madsen owns Midwest Benefits Solutions – so the schedule mostly has been weekend gatherings. They post events that are open to the public on their Facebook page.

They have two events that are open to the public coming up this month. Neighborhood Grill will be at Kai’s Kustoms at 12th Street and Cliff Avenue on Saturday for its fifth annual motorcycle swap meet and customer appreciation day, which runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sept. 29, they’ll be at the R.F. Pettigrew Panther Festival & Fun Run from 3 to 6 p.m. at Southern Vistas Park next to the elementary school.

In addition to Philly cheesesteaks, the menu typically includes standard fare such as barbecue sandwiches, hamburgers, cheeseburgers and the Q Dog, a jumbo hot dog topped with barbecue meat.

They’re willing to create custom menus for private events and are taking on large catering jobs too. They’ve booked a wedding and will do a 300-person graduation party in the spring.

Madsen mostly handles orders and Otruba, who owned bars and restaurants in New York before working in the trucking industry for more than 30 years, does the cooking.

They can cook out of the back of the trailer but like to pull out the grills, so people can watch the food being made and the “smells are awesome.”