June 15, 2022

In true “Nacho Libre” fashion, Flying Santo Taco Bar will celebrate its grand opening Friday with pro-wrestling matches.

The restaurant with a masked Mexican wrestling theme in the Jones421 Building on North Phillips Avenue will host Flagship Pro Wrestling from 4 to 7 p.m. in the mixed-use building’s courtyard.

“It’s just a celebration of the beginning of Pride, of life and fun and entertainment. … It’s going to be an epic event not to be missed, and we’re excited about it,” said Doug Sager, who is opening the restaurant with his husband, Abe Castro.

Opening on Friday at the kickoff to Pride celebrations for the weekend is “symbolically important to us because we’re an LGBTQ business, and we’re very proud of it,” he said.

Flying Santo, which is in the former Papa Woody’s Wood Fired Pizza space, will open at 4 p.m. that day, and Sager said customers can buy food and take it over to the matches, which are free.

“Of course, the wrestling federation mirrors our theme of ‘Nacho Libre’ wrestling, and there will be characters that reflect that. … Each match is roughly 15 minutes or so. And there might be something to do with tacos in the ring. I don’t want to get too specific; I want there to be some surprises.”

Flying Santo will close at 7 that night, and Sager said he hopes customers visit the other shops and eateries in the first-floor marketplace at Jones421 before heading over to the concert across the street at Levitt at the Falls.

To start, regular hours will be 6:30 to 10 a.m. Tuesday through Friday for breakfast and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. those same days for lunch.

On Saturdays and Sundays, Flying Santo will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“In about a month, we will do three nights for dinner, assuming we can staff it,” Sager said.

Sager and Castro hired a chef from the northern state of Sonora in Mexico who has been working in Tucson, Arizona. He will bring the flavors Casto grew up with and has been searching to find in Sioux Falls since the couple moved here from California in 2020.

The lunch menu will focus on five basics: tacos, burritos, bowls, quesadillas and nachos. Meat choices will be steak asada, slow-roasted pork, chicken, shrimp and a vegetarian offering.

Customers will order at the counter, and “the whole process begins with an old-fashioned cranked tortilla cooked on the plancha, or griddle, before assembly starts of your dish,” Sager said.

Tortillas for the tacos are 6 inches in diameter; for the quesadillas and burritos, they’re 13 inches.

The cheese for the nachos won’t come out of a big can; “it’s shredded cheese that is melted on top as it should be,” Sager said.

Side dishes include street corn, farmed beans, rice, chips and salsa, and guacamole.

The morning menu will be simple with two choices: a breakfast burrito or chilaquiles, a dish that includes tortilla chips with scrambled eggs and salsa that’s topped with guacamole and more salsa “and whatever you like after that,” Sager said. “We’ll serve that with a little bit of beans.”

Flying Santo will serve “a nice selection of Mexican cervezas in a bottle,” he said of the beer options. There will be fountain Coke products and Mexican sodas such as the sugar cane version of Coca-Cola in little bottles and a couple flavors of Jarritos.

Flying Santo has about a dozen seats, and there are common seating areas scattered throughout the marketplace and in the courtyard, but it’s designed to be a grab-and-go eatery with to-go containers and forks that are compostable.

“Come get your food, enjoy the building, go to the Falls and downtown Sioux Falls,” Sager said.

In keeping with the restaurant’s low-carbon footprint mission, it will try to source as many local ingredients as possible, he said.

They spent Saturday morning at Falls Park Farmers Market, lining up chicken from Cornucopia Farms, pork and beef from Orange Creek Farms and cilantro from Mary’s Kitchen & Gardens. Once more local vegetables are ready for harvest, they’ll be used, Sager said.

“The farm-to-table taco concept is really being received well by the community. It’s a buzz. It’s simple, clean, local, fresh.”

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