Latest / The Scene Projects / Dana Wohlwend's Culinary Tours: Adapting, Expanding, and Building Community

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Dana Wohlwend's Culinary Tours: Adapting, Expanding, and Building Community · The Scene Projects

• 0:00
  Turn my phone.
• 0:03
  Welcome in to a very exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:05
  I am your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is Dana Wolwin.
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  She is the owner of Sioux Falls Food Tours.
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  Welcome to the show, Dana.
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  Thanks a lot.
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  Well, exciting.
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  I know you're approaching a big anniversary, six years of the food tours.
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  Before we get into everything you got happening, here coming up, let's, let's dive in
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  a little bit and get the origin story.
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  So tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey.
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  Well, Sioux Falls Food Tours actually hit its eight year anniversary.
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  I started as a tour guide.
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  So I entered or answered an ad that said, do you like to eat and drink and talk to people?
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  And I said, well, of course, that's me.
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  And so I became a tour guide.
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  Jenna Chaplin owned the Sioux Falls Food Tours before I came in as a tour guide.
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  And then her other endeavors got busy, and she decided that she wasn't, she was gonna shut it
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  down.
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  She didn't have time for it, or, we made a deal and I bought the business from her.
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  Well, how exciting.
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  I'm sure when you answered that ad, you didn't see yourself here six years later.
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  No.
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  Probably not.
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  So why don't you take us from, there?
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  Explain as, the responsibilities of the tour guide first, and then we'll work into, you
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  know, all the rest of the responsibilities of owning said company later.
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  Well, the business had primarily been private parties at that time because Jenna had a large
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  network of people who would say, hey, Jenna.
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  Just take us out, you know, set up something really fun for us, and that's what she would
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  do.
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  So when I took over the business, my friends were stay at home moms or, you know, not the
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  kind of people that would just say, hey.
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  We're gonna give you some money, and you you make all the plans for us necessarily.
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  So, it took a while for us to figure out how to get from that into something that's more public
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  oriented.
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  Like, anyone can come on a food tour now.
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  We have them all every week.
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  And so I tried different things.
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  I'm like, oh, is it gonna be a Friday night drink tour, or is it gonna be a Saturday
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  afternoon food tour or a Sunday brewery tour?
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  My most popular one was Saturday afternoons for food.
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  And so then and I took it out the business over in February of nineteen or, '19.
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  And by August of nineteen, I told my husband, said, I'm gonna have to work every Saturday
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  because it was kinda hit and miss on the calendar.
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  And if you don't have that consistency, people look at it.
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  It's not the time they're gonna be in town.
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  They forget to come back to your website.
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  So we started consistency, and things started to build, and then we got hit with COVID.
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  So we were shut down from March to September and then opened back up and went really, really
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  well when we opened up.
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  I thought it might be slow, but people were so ready to be out.
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  I had a lot of people from Minnesota and Iowa, which their restaurants were totally closed
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  down, so they were very excited.
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  They just wanted to eat somewhere.
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  They did.
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  They wanted to be out among people eating.
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  And so it's just slowly grown.
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  We run a I've tried it.
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  We've done a best bar food tour on a Thursday night and a Friday afternoon cocktail tour.
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  We tried that for a year, but the numbers weren't there to make that a consistent
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  schedule yet.
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  So as a tour guide, it's my job to figure out what you might be what you're gonna be
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  interested in to provide a curated menu, to provide historic talking points along that
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  route, and then just to make it a very comfortable atmosphere for people to have a
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  good time with.
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  So are you calling ahead to some of these places and letting them know, hey.
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  We're coming in with a group, and this is kind of our itinerary and doing a lot of that
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  preplanning?
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  Absolutely.
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  They know we're coming in.
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  They know what we're ordering.
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  They know what time we're gonna be in.
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  We've just shifted our model from last, for the last five years in this brand new year.
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  We're shifting from going to four to five food stops to seven to nine.
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  So timing's very important and that things are ready when we walk in.
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  We try something and we, you know, we might not even sit down at the place.
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  We used to sit down everywhere we went.
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  And now it's like, well, we're gonna come in.
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  We're gonna have a bite to eat, then we're gonna move on to the next place.
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  Get the tapas ready.
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  We're
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  Yep.
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  We're just going.
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  I've run I've run two, so we started those in February here.
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  And so, they've actually gone really well.
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  And it's with my experience, I know how long it's gonna take, and I
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  can
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  get that plan pretty accurately.
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  So when you started, was it still mostly the private parties?
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  As you said, Jenna was more into that.
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  Was it you just kind of going out and being her when she wasn't available, or did you kinda
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  come in and have to plan your own thing right from the jump?
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  Well, as a tour guide, she would plan them out and then I would run them.
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  So she'd say, here's the group.
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  Here's where I want you to take them.
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  I want you to take three hours.
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  This is what you're gonna order.
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  And she would call ahead and have that stuff have at least let the business owners know
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  where we're coming.
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  And you just have to show up and have fun then.
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  Yeah.
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  As a tour guide, you know, I'm like, I'll just do what it says here on the sheet, and I can
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  just go out and eat, and I get to talk to people.
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  I do have other people that help me every once in a while, and we do eat on our tours.
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  So the tour guides are encouraged to eat with the customers because that creates a whole
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  different vibe.
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  I've been on food tours where the guy just steps aside.
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  They don't eat with the customer.
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  That's not their they don't get to eat with the customer.
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  Well and you and you touched on it.
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  It's a lot different vibe.
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  It doesn't feel doesn't feel as much like a community, right, as when the tour guide is in
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  the experience with you.
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  So Yeah.
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  So it's very important that we're sitting down, conversing, eating, sharing a meal because that
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  sharing a meal across any genre, any age group, any ethnicity, that's what creates the
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  connection.
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  Breaking bread.
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  Yep.
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  I lived in Mexico for a year, Dana.
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  They won't let you enter the house without putting food in front of you.
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  My son's mother-in-law is from Mexico.
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  So, yes, I have that experience often.
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  Like, oh, here you are.
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  Let's eat.
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  Comey.
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  Comey.
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  Comey.
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  Well, that is fantastic.
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  What a cool thing to kind of fall into.
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  And then a few years later, you're kind of running things.
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  So was it still Jenna's operation through COVID and then kind of after that, or that was it had
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  just you had just taken over essentially.
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  Right?
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  I had taken over in February of nineteen.
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  Wow.
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  And so Great.
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  And it was real hit real hit and miss.
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  Like I said, we were trying I was trying to, you know, hone in on the one thing to at least
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  start with.
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  And so August of nineteen is where that honing in got to.
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  We're gonna do this every Saturday.
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  We're gonna have it on the calendar.
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  You know?
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  Someone's in town.
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  It's available.
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  So, yeah, August 19 to March of twenty twenty.
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  So those seven months
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  Right.
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  You finally did yeah.
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  You finally feel like, hey.
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  You know what?
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  We got something here.
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  We kinda know what's going on, and then you're shut down for seven months and having to come
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  back.
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  Did you kinda stick to the playbook that you had, developed before COVID?
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  Coming back then, it was kind of, hey.
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  We know we're gonna do Saturdays.
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  We're gonna be running this and then have just continued to build on that.
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  Yes.
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  So, I followed Jenna's kinda guidelines, which was the four to five stops, and, the Saturdays
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  I had built in.
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  And, honestly, a lot of the thing is we also wanna be respectful of the restaurants and
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  their availability.
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  We do not wanna hit them at eleven, twelve on a Saturday afternoon.
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  They are packed.
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  We wanna come in between one and four when it's their downtime.
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  So not only is it providing a better experience for our customers, but it's providing a better
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  experience for our vendors.
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  Which will keep them wanting you to come back.
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  So Yep.
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  A a great business plan there, especially when you're completely reliant on these restaurants
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  for you to even have a business.
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  Right?
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  I mean, you're not cooking any of the food, so you need them, and not pissing anyone off is a
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  big part of the playbook.
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  Absolutely.
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  Well, that is so fun.
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  Well, what does, so what kind of tours do you offer now?
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  Let's let's bring it up to current.
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  You still have every Saturday going, and are there more tours now that you're doing besides
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  just the Saturdays?
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  Right now, Saturdays is what we have scheduled, but we do private tours anytime.
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  So that best bar food tour, if you wanna go on a Thursday night and find some of the best bar
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  food in town, we'll take you out and do that.
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  If you wanna do a drink tour, a brewery tour, a pizza tour, we can work with whatever that is.
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  So what I did was drop the Thursday night bar best bar food tour and this Friday afternoon
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  cocktail tasting tour just to open it up for more of those private parties.
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  So we do a lot of those.
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  So so instead of having a sign up and you can come to this open to the public, you've moved
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  those tours to more of a private call us ahead of time you wanna schedule that in, which kind
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  of for those tours right.
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  It makes a little bit more sense as well anyway, especially the bar tour.
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  People might be, you know, a little inebriated, by the end of that one.
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  So you definitely want to be careful with the clientele.
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  I'm driving.
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  I'm sober.
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  Thank goodness.
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  Well and then you have, like, the, the pedal pushers and the different, you know, the
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  different biking things around town.
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  You can always just throw them on there and let them work it off a little bit.
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  Well, people say that, but I am really more about experiencing the food with a little drink
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  to supplement rather than experiencing the drink and throwing some food in.
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  Right.
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  Well and staying food focused is the big deal and so many options out there as well.
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  Is it hard to narrow in?
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  Now is each tour like, when you have the bar tour, is it the same places that you're going
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  to every time?
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  Or are people able to go like, well, we prefer more of an Irish bar compared to a, you know, a
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  bar and grill or they that they can kinda mix and match maybe some places or a vibe that
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  they're going for?
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  Well, that's the beauty of it being private.
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  It can be designed for whatever your group would like to try.
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  Some groups are like, we wanna, you know, we wanna just leave it to you.
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  We'll go with what you have, and I have some of my favorites.
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  But if they have a a vibe they want, we can certainly, make that happen.
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  Well and I'm sure your database just in your head alone of restaurants and places, you know,
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  the bars and everything too that you can pretty easily curate, an afternoon or an evening right
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  off the top of your head for the most part, I would assume.
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  Pretty easily.
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  Yeah.
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  So, like our Saturday tours, we have four different routes.
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  So depending on the week of the month it is, that's a that's a different route.
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  Oh, awesome.
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  So you could go every week and you would be seeing a different tour throughout the month?
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  So if you went for all four weeks in a month, you would hit over 40 places in Sioux Falls
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  just on a Saturday afternoon walking downtown.
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  Incredible.
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  What a fun what a fun deal.
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  We're big foodies.
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  My wife and I, I don't drink anymore, but still love to, go out and enjoy food anywhere that I
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  can.
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  My problem is is that I when I find something that I like, for me, especially, I work
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  downtown in Sioux Falls when I'm there.
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  You know that I live in Tyndall.
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  We talked about the bakery a little bit down here.
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  Yep.
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  And I think we'll address that again before I let you go, but, that I stick to the places
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  that I know.
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  Right?
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  I'm I'm up there.
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  I'm limited time.
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  For me, I'm going to see Debbie at the Blarney Stone.
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  Right?
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  Like, that's my spot.
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  So when I go with my wife on a weekend, then it's hard for me to wanna branch out.
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  I'm like, I know I know this place has what I like.
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  I know you're going to find something that you like, but we we very rarely find ourselves
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  wanting to branch out.
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  Usually, it just starts a fight because nobody wants to make the decision to do it.
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  So I I think it's a great thing that that you're doing to kind of open people's borders
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  up a little bit.
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  Right?
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  Expand the horizons.
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  And and not that you're and so nice to do it in a in a public fashion.
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  Right?
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  You're you're out.
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  You're meeting new friends.
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  You are, you know, experiencing this with other people.
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  You're able to maybe try a few more few more dishes than you would if you were just sitting
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  down and ordering two meals.
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  When you show up at a place, do they kind of have it where it's almost buffet style and you
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  have some different options for people to try, you know, appetizers or things like that, or or
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  what is it like?
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  I decide the menu.
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  Everybody eats the same thing. thing.
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  eats Know what we're having.
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  Awesome.
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  Awesome.
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  But you're trying also, you know, nine different things along the route as well.
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  So, well, how awesome.
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  While we're talking, you you've been talking about doing some tours outside of Sioux Falls
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  now.
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  I don't know if you care to divulge any of that, but you asked me for some recommendations
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  on what there is in Tyndall.
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  And, of course, we have our famous bakery here, the best bakery rolls on the planet.
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  I I would challenge anyone to that.
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  But what what does the future of Sioux Falls food tours look like, Dana?
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  Well, last year, we ventured out with a bus tour.
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  So I have self guided food tours as well.
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  And so you just buy it and you go.
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  And it gives you the map of where you're going and tells you what to order.
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  And, so you buy it all the if you order what I suggest you should order, which is always what
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  you should order, then, whatever the amount covers that amount that item.
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  And so last year for celebrate, six zero five days, six zero five is June 5, We did a bus
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  tour to do my I 90 route.
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  So we hit the five stops on the way out to the hills.
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  So you can buy a self guided tour, five stops on the way out to the hills.
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  It's gonna take you about eight hours to get to the hills, but you're gonna stop, and and we're
• 15:21
  not gonna stop at Waldrug, and we're not stopping at Al's Oasis.
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  We are stopping at other places that you're not gonna necessarily go to unless you follow my
• 15:31
  route.
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  So we did that tour last year.
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  That was three days, five stops out.
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  We did five stops in the Northern Hills the next day with four stops that evening downtown
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  Rapid City, and then we did five stops back on I 90.
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  So we hit 33 places in three days.
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  Incredible.
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  Incredible.
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  So I actually grew up in Deadwood.
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  So very familiar with some, some hideaways out there, but I love this.
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  I love the idea.
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  As a musician and someone who has been, been around the block quite a few times, I have
• 16:05
  definitely, found some of the out of the way places, and and then that's what I stick to.
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  So this is twofold for me.
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  Maybe I'm running over, some places that I've forgotten about or I'm being introduced to
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  brand new places that I I've never even heard of or or known that they were there.
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  So I I really love the whole the whole thing is just great, and I love food.
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  I mean, I didn't get to two forty by not by not being a food, advocate, if you will.
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  Also, imbibing in a little bit too much beer too.
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  That probably had a little bit to do with it.
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  Lost a little weight when I gave up drinking myself.
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  But
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  Yeah.
• 16:42
  Well, it's funny how that happens.
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  Right?
• 16:44
  You forget about those calories when you're not eating them and you're just drinking them.
• 16:48
  Yep.
• 16:49
  Dana, how can we find you?
• 16:51
  How can people find you online and in person, and where can we get the self guided tours?
• 16:57
  So Sioux Falls Food Tours, our website if you went to souxfallsfoodtours.com, it would
• 17:01
  redirect to our website.
• 17:02
  Our website is sufu food tours, so s f f u s u f u food tours, which really sounds bad when
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  you spell it out.
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  That's like, go to Sioux Falls Food Tours.
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  You'll find us.
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  But there, can buy the self guided tours.
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  You can jump on one of our Saturday tours.
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  You can let me know if you want a private tour.
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  Our bus tour, I don't have that up there, but that will be running again June 5.
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  This time, we're going we're gonna go out Highway 14, and we're gonna come back Highway
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  44.
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  Amazing.
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  I that just keeps expanding.
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  And in another few years, you're gonna have all of South Dakota mapped with, incredible places
• 17:43
  to stop in and have a bite to eat.
• 17:45
  So I'm just thrilled that we got to chat today, Dana.
• 17:48
  Thank you so much for being on the show.
• 17:50
  Well, thank you so much for having me.
• 17:52
  This was awesome.
• 17:53
  Yeah.
• 17:54
  Well, Dana, I always say thank you for being part of the scene.