Aug. 17, 2021

Other opportunities are leading to the loss of two food truck businesses.

Faster-than-expected growth for a food truck owner’s gunsmith business means an end to fried cheese sandwiches.

Jeremy and Jenn Holien, who started Redders last year, are moving to north-central South Dakota and have sold the trailer to a buyer in Wagner.

That means you have one final chance to enjoy their “twist on your mom’s grilled cheese.” They’ll be at  Red Rock Bar & Grill in Rowena on Saturday from 5 p.m. to midnight for the free Saving Abel concert.

Jeremey Holien, a retired military veteran, operates Deadeye Custom Weapons, offering his skills as a gunsmith and bladesmith and selling guns as a federal firearms license holder.

In addition to working with individual customers, he has secured contracts with other companies for his services and needs to set up a gun range so he can assess problems and test his work. He’ll be able to do that on the 25 acres they bought near Firesteel, 51 miles west of Mobridge.

“It is bittersweet,” he said of selling the trailer. “Jenn and I, even the kids, we love the trailer, and we love doing this.”

He envisions starting another food truck someday as a part-time venture, going to bigger events in Pierre, Rapid City and into North Dakota.

The other loss is the food truck and the trailer for Watecha Bowl. Owners Lawrence and Sophie West sold them to out-of-state buyers to focus on their restaurant in the West Sioux neighborhood, a former bar and restaurant they bought in Freeman that they’ll renovate and reopen and their plans for a restaurant in Rapid City and a second one in Sioux Falls.

“The restaurant business is growing,” Lawrence West said. “The food trucks are convenient but terribly small. We want to do fast food and fresh, and a kitchen can put it out more quickly.”

Watecha Bowl started as a food truck last year and expanded into its brick-and-mortar space on West Madison Street in April. It added a second trailer this summer, which was featured in a “Today” segment on South Dakota tourism.

The Wests hope to open in Freeman by the end of October, in Rapid City next year and break ground for a building in Sioux Falls in the fall of 2022.

Watecha Bowl is still available for catering, West noted.

Earlier this month, the owners of Food Mama announced they were moving home to Wisconsin and selling the business they had been building up for three summers.

Food Mama owners to move; business is for sale

Love food trucks? Here’s your complete guide to the 2021 season