May 1, 2023

Pizza is coming back to the food court at The Empire Mall.

Fat Kid Pizza, from the owners of Fat Kid Filly’s, is taking over the space that has been held by a couple of restaurants since Villa Italian Kitchen closed in March 2020.

“I’m just a fat kid who likes pizza,” said owner Cody Sauers of Salem, who started the business with his wife, Amber, as a food truck serving his twist on Philly cheesesteaks in 2020. They have expanded into concessions, operating at the Denny Sanford Premier Center, Huset’s Speedway and the Jackson Motorplex in Jackson, Minnesota.

Fat Kid is making the move into pizza because cheesesteaks already are on the menu at Charleys Cheesesteaks in the mall’s food court.

The couple gained a little pizza-making experience when they took over The Brewery in Salem, which they operated for six months as FatKid Saloon.

“I really like making pizza,” Sauers said. “This will be a different venture than in Salem. Out there, we followed the bar’s way of doing it. This will let me take my idea and run with it. I’m excited for the creative side of it.”

He has been working on recipes at home, using his family as taste-testers.

“It won’t be crispy thin crust,” Sauers said. “We’re aiming for floppy New York-style.”

Customers will be able to get grab-and-go slices and pastas. They can order whole pizzas, picking from a variety of standard toppings.

“One day a week, we’ll do some sort of specialty, artisan-style pizza,” he said. That could be something like buffalo chicken or deep dish.

For pasta, he’s envisioning mac-and-cheese, fettucine alfredo and some type of noodle with meatballs.

He’s hoping to open in early July.