July 19, 2024
Backyard BBQ has added three food trucks this season, adding more barbecue options and new concepts like fries, ice cream and fresh-squeezed lemonade.
Willy’s Fries debuted at Golf Addiction’s Food Truck Tuesday in mid-June.
“It’s a pretty interesting concept and it’s pretty new to the Sioux Falls area,” said Eric Elenkiewicz, whose father started Backyard BBQ as a restaurant in Brookings and expanded it to Sioux Falls in 2014.
The new Willy’s Fries will feature loaded shoestring-style fries, including the classic chili cheese version. Elenkiewicz said an early hit will be the Gyro Fries, seasoned with garlic and Parmesan and topped with lamb gyro meat, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, feta cheese and tzatziki sauce.
Other menu items include Poutine Fries, which are seasoned fries topped with beef brisket, cheese curds, brown gravy and chives, and Cowboy Fries, which are seasoned fries topped with pulled pork, jalapeños, shredded cheese and barbecue sauce.
You can also order regular or sweet potato fries as a side dish.
Eventually, Elenkiewicz said he plans to add Texas Taters, long, thin ribbons of potato.
Another new addition this year is Street Sweets. The bright yellow and green trucks sell ice cream from local Stensland Family Farm in dipped trays or waffle cones. Each truck includes four flavors of ice cream and freshly squeezed lemonade.
Elenkiewicz said Street Sweets is booked for every concert at Levitt at the Falls, which hosts as many as 50 free concerts Thursday through Saturday for most of the season.
Backyard BBQ has been operating a food truck in Sioux Falls since 2016. A few years later, “Q2” was added, followed by “Ollies” in 2019, “Q3” in 2021 and “Q4” in early May, to meet demand for selling barbecue meats at public events and catering for private gatherings, Elenkiewicz said.
“There were a few times last year where we had to bring Ollie out and do barbecues,” he said.
The Backyard BBQ menu will include pulled pork, brisket and smoked chicken sandwiches, as well as sides like molasses baked beans, mac and cheese and coleslaw.
Ollies serves gourmet burgers, smoked wings, hot dogs and fries.
The backyard barbecue isn’t over yet.
“We’re going to keep going,” Elenkiewicz said, “and we’ll do some new stuff for next year, but we just haven’t nailed it down yet.”
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