New downtown Sioux Falls Mexican restaurant BibiSol promises to ‘bring the heat and culture'

A new downtown authentic Mexican and nixtamal restaurant, BibiSol Bodega + Provisions , hosted its grand opening Friday.

Owners Marcela Salas and her mother Patricia Burbine also started and run the renowned Salas Salsas , a salsa and tamales business and food truck. Salas’ fiance Chris Nelson is also a co-owner of the restaurant, BibiSol.

The new business is located downtown at 219 S. Phillips Ave., where the Irish store Mrs. Murphy’s used to reside. The husband and wife owners of Mrs. Murphy’s decided to retire and close their doors in June 2023 after 26 years.

Now the space inside the downtown historic Carpenter Building has become home to another family-owned restaurant, BibiSol.

We have had so much fun transforming BibiSol into the space we envisioned.For 26 years, this storefront celebrated the...

Posted by BibiSol Kitchen on Monday, July 15, 2024

The menu consists of tamales, tostadas, empanadas, sopes and tacos, all paired with their signature salsas.

In addition to a full-service restaurant, BibiSol will also sell their Salas Salsas products, tamales and other grab-and-go items at their bodega (or store).

“Our bodega really connects our Salas Salsas company and allows people who maybe don’t have the time or budget to dine out,” Salas said. “It just makes us accessible as well.”

More: Sunny’s Pizzeria paves the way for Salas Salsas' growing business, new restaurant

BibiSol’s grand opening will begin at 10:30 a.m. Friday, with the full menu a la carte and stocked bodega items from Salas Salsas.

Regular hours will be 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, with a brunch menu. A kids menu will also be available and reservations can be made online .

Here's the dish

Many of the restaurant’s ingredients are locally sourced from places like Carper Sweet Corn in Rutland, Svec Farm grass-fed beef in Estelline, Mayborn Acres chicken in Parker, Little Greens Microgreens in Sioux Falls and The Breaks coffee.

“We want our service to communicate and educate so people who are used to Tex-Mex food can be reintroduced to something more authentic and connect with them,” Salas said.

The bar will also serve a variety of wine, Mexican beers and local brews from businesses such as Look’s Marketplace and Buffalo Ridge Brewing . There will also be non-alcoholic options such as NA beer and Sioux Falls’ Songbird Kombucha .

The foundation of the menu at BibiSol though is masa. According to their website , the concept came about with the idea of nixtamalization, an ancient, Indigenous practice where dried maize kernels (or corn) sourced from Mexico are boiled in an alkaline solution of water and slated lime, which brings out the flavor and makes it edibile. The maize is then ground with a volcanic stone grinder, a molino, creating masa.

Instead of using Maseca or corn that's already been externalized and is usually GMO like many other places in the area, BibiSol brings in heirloom corn varieties from Mexico, which makes the tortilla more authentic and fresh.

Because Indigenous people used this process before, Salas said, “it’s no stranger to South Dakota.”

“We are connecting our roots to something here…while also trying to honor our roots back home and honor the place we're living in now,” Salas said.

The Salas Salsas food truck will continue to be available at the Brandon Farmers Market and Falls Park Farmers Market, where customers can exclusively taste and purchase Salas Salsas sauces, packaged tamales and, of course, salsas.

“We’re bringing the heat and we’re bringing the culture,” Salas said.

What's in a name?

The name BibiSol is a combined homage to both Salas’ and Burbine’s names. Bibi originates from a nickname Salas had as a child in Mexico, given by her older sister who called her “bibi” when she meant to say "bebé," the Spanish word for "baby."

Salas also said the word Bibi in Persuian represents a female leader of the community, such as a matriarch or grandmother.

The dual meaning of Bibi honors Salas’ family’s matriarchal line. Salas said it’s her and her mother each “stepping into their power” and “honoring themselves as women and female cooks.”

“Knowing our purpose in life is to not only make really delicious food but be community leaders,” Salas said.

Sol in Spanish is translated to “the sun,” but the word also honors Burbine’s middle name, Soledad, meaning alone.

Humble beginnings

Burbine said when she and her three children first came to the U.S. in 1999, she essentially was “starting alone” with no family or friends nearby. The road ahead for the family was difficult at first, going through periods of homelessness.

At that time, Burbine said she had to put her dreams on hold. Her only priority was taking care of her daughters, sometimes even forgoing eating to buy her children a gallon of milk or other food.

Later, when Burbine and Salas moved to Sioux Falls, Salas attended culinary school while also earning her private pilot license, while Burbine worked as a maid.

When living in Mexico, Burbine ran a small restaurant, but she said she never in her wildest dreams thought she would open one in the U.S., let alone Sioux Falls.

Sioux Falls gave her and her daughter that chance when they started a “small batch salsa company” in the summer of 2020, after encouragement from friends. The mother-daughter duo began selling their homemade salsas at the Brandon Farmers Market , eventually selling out of salsas nearly every weekend.

That summer was also the beginning of another new venture at the farmer’s market. It’s where Salas and Nelson first met.

After being laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nelson began helping his brother sell organic vegetables at the Brandon Farmers Market.

“I was very down when I got laid off,” Nelson said. “I never had that happen before, but then like something beautiful came out of it -  I got the chance to meet her.”

Nelson later joined Salas and Burbine’s business in the food industry and has never looked back.

According to Nelson, his and Salas’ story was also very organic.

A fork in the road

The word about Salas Salsas tasty food product started to spread.

Cherry Rock Farms loved the Salas Salsas product so much that they began selling their salsas in their store. This opened the door to more opportunities for Salas and Burbine to sell their salsas in retail stores like Hy-Vee, Look’s Marketplace , Pomegranate Market and the Sioux Falls Food Co-Op .

More: Pomegranate Market expanding to Cherapa Place

The first time Salas and Burbine pursued opening a restaurant was in July 2021. Their lease was located downtown at Swamp Daddy’s first location in the Jones421 building .

By the following month, those plans fell through when they were told the space wouldn’t be ready by Sept. 1, when their lease started.

Determined, she decided instead to sell their salsas and take-and-bake tamales and enchiladas with a food truck and catering business, which began in June 2022.

"Everything happens for a reason"

The family was able to prep their food using the kitchen at EightyOne Arcade, which they rented and shared with Sunny’s Pizzeria for more than a year. Earlier this year, Sunny’s stepped aside, allowing Salas Salsas and now BibiSol next door to use the kitchen full-time via a connected hallway.

Last month, Salas Salsas was also one of the $5,000 category winners for Hy-Vee's Pitch Competition OpportUNITY Inclusive Summit held at the Covention Center. The competition hosted 15 minority and women-owned small businesses that presented their innovative products and services to a panel of four judges. The finalists were chosen out of 60 applicants.

More: Hy-Vee OpportUNITY Inclusive Summit celebrates small business success in Sioux Falls

“Now we have staff members and support,” Salas said. “We have people who are helping us just realize our dream of owning a restaurant while still keeping ourselves a business viable and alive.”

“It's an honor to be able to do this and have the support of our community,” Salas said.  “We're up for the challenge and we hope to be that legacy, just like Mrs. Murphy's Irish Gift Shop was here - that legacy of culture - and we hope to just continue to carry that with what we do.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: New downtown Sioux Falls Mexican restaurant BibiSol promises to ‘bring the heat and culture'