After nine months of traditional Native American food served at the Saucy Calf’s brick-and-mortar restaurant in Pawhuska, it is now permanently closed.
According to Saucy Calf co-owners Asa and Jamison Concha and Lauren and Cody Garnett, the closure came because the Saucy Calf restaurant did not have enough people eating there to pay their overhead costs.
Asa Concha, whose Osage cooking was the inspiration for the restaurant, said that while Saucy Calf is going out of business she and her husband Jamison will be doing catering from home.
Additionally, they are now looking into a food truck.
Fellow Osage co-owner Lauren Garnett said that while she and her husband Cody knew better than to get into the restaurant business, they wanted to try.
“Asa, she’s the best chef in my mind,” said Lauren. Of the possible food truck, she said, “we still need a way to eat Asa’s cooking.”
‘Lightning in a bottle’
At the last lunch service in Saucy Calf’s dining room, the restaurant sold popular menu items like rez dawgs, meatpies, grape dumplings and corn soup as well as NDN tacos, which featured the choice of not only green chili or regular but also ground meat or brisket.
The brisket NDN tacos held a pile of vegetables and cheese atop the meat on fluffy, soft-in-the-middle frybread with a golden crunch. The juices of the meat pooled in the center of the frybread, giving the center a taste like it had been freshly dipped in soup.
Several people came in from out-of-town and ordered NDN tacos, only to be surprised to find out it was the Saucy Calf restaurant’s last day.
A pair of diners from Bartlesville said they hadn’t had the chance to make it in yet and so came to Pawhuska specifically for Saucy Calf. They ordered NDN tacos and corn soup with meatpies to dip in it.
A pair traveling from Springfield, Mo., were also shocked to find out the restaurant was closing. “Honestly, I saw it on Google and wanted to try it. I thought it was fantastic,” said Elisa, a traveler alongside fellow Missourian Paul Moore. They both ate NDN tacos.
Even though the restaurant did not last the year, Jamison Concha said he and Asa were very grateful. “We got a blessing with the opportunity,” he said. “Together we all made something awesome … We touched the world.”
Closing reflections
Originally, the business partners had planned for a food truck but when the Mexican restaurant formerly housed at 205 E. Main Street closed, they decided to buy the building and give Saucy Calf a go.
“Sometimes, bigger isn’t always better, come to find out,” said co-owner Cody Garnett. “We learned a hard lesson there, for sure. We thought it would be lightning in a bottle, we figured we’d have people from all over the world all the time because where else can you find it, you know?”
During a live stream on the Saturday of their closing, Asa and Jamison acknowledged the people they served from all over the world.
Their diners represented every state in the country, Asa said, and they also served people from Turkey, Iran, Ontario, Australia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK.
They had hoped for more local support, however, said both Asa and Jamison.
Among possible contributing factors to the closure was the decision to pay decent wages to their workers, said Cody, “not minimum wage.”
But in his estimation, the “business just fell off to nothing.”
He said, “Well we did our best … our business just fell off to nothing, pretty much. Just August alone we lost $8,000. It’s been snowballing like that every month. Even our first month, I think we sold like $80,000 worth of food but it cost us $84,000 to produce that. We lost $4,000 [that month.]”
Cody said Asa and Jamison did absolutely everything they could to make it work, “and we did everything we could do,” he said. “We were trying.”
There are no hard feelings among the business partners, said the Conchas and Garnetts.
Catering and food truck
Asa announced on social media they will be catering from home and will deliver food to those who put in large enough orders.
She also spoke of their food truck plans, saying they will set up in different towns, and will sell some of the foods from the Saucy Calf menu.
“Once we get that going, we’ll post it on Facebook,” she said.
Cody expressed his excitement about the Conchas’ plans for a food truck. “There’s a lot of overhead [for a restaurant], compared to zero overhead [for a food truck] except whatever kind of payment you have on the trailer,” he said.
Jamison said he was also excited to potentially try different foods in a food truck setup.
In his livestream comments, he said, “I can’t be thankful enough to Lauren and Cody.”
Among his remarks, he thanked the customers as well. “There’s been many that have been here, not on the daily but most every other day. And there’s some that ain’t been in for a while that would come in every day. I hope they’re okay.”
Asa addressed Saucy Calf followers on the livestream, as well.
She began, “Hey. I’d just like to say hello, ha.we, to everybody today and let ya’ll know it’s kind of a sad day with it being our last day here … We’ve had so many people come and go through here. It’s been a great experience to be able to meet so many people from all over the world …
“Although we didn’t have much local support, we had a lot of out-of-town support and the tourist support. We appreciate each and every one of ya’ll for coming in and visiting us and I hope we’ve made you feel at home and that you received a great blessing from the food that you got.
“Hopefully, this isn’t the end of us. After the New Year we’re going to try to do maybe a food truck—travel surrounding cities, towns that’s close to here in Pawhuska. We will be doing caterings, food orders from home. If there’s a big enough order that you’d like to have, you can give us a call. We’ll be glad to take your order and deliver to you, also. You can give us a call, we’ll get that taken care of for you. Follow us on the Saucy Calf Facebook page, we’ll keep ya’ll updated as to where we’re going, what we’re going to do and please feel free to call or text any questions or messages you may have …
“It’s been a great run here and a really great experience to be put into a business such as this,” said Asa. “The love, the prayers that went into all the food and being able to cook, which is something I really love to do. I say 𐓏𐒷𐓏𐒻𐓁𐒰, thank you all and I say thank you to Lauren and Cody for trusting us and standing beside us as we went through this time. Love you guys and I’ll talk to everybody soon. Ya’ll have a great Christmas, Happy New Year. 𐒼𐒰𐓇𐒻𐒼𐒰𐓈𐒰͘ 𐒻𐓏𐒻𐓍𐒷 𐓈𐒰͘ 𐓀𐒻͘𐒼𐓇𐒷.”
Their next step will be to see food truck dealers in Cushing. Stay tuned at https://www.facebook.com/@saucycalf/. Saucy Calf shirts, hats and other merchandise are available at www.saucycalf.com. Orders for Saucy Calf catering, as well as questions, can go to Asa at (405) 617-9809.
