Food truck, restaurant, international business. Fresno family keeps growing its brand
Miriam Martinez knows a thing or two (almost certainly more) about jackfruit, having grown up in Nayarit, on the coast of Mexico.
It’s a city that lives off the jackfruit harvest for months out of the year and the place where her family sources the tropical fruit, which it imports and markets in various forms through a popular food truck and a newly opened restaurant in downtown Fresno.
La Jacka, the restaurant, operates out of the former Bitwise South Stadium building at 700 Van Ness Ave., offering breakfast, lunch and dinner Tuesdays to Sundays.
On the menu are the signature meatless tacos, burritos and quesadilla that made the food truck a favorite among vegans and vegetarians. There also are a number of other Mexican dishes that can’t be easily served in to-go form.
On special last week for example: pozole, chilaquiles and molletes, a sort-of open-faced sandwich with beans and a plant-based cheese.
Martinez’s daughter Fernanda Cox runs three separate grills at the restaurant: one for vegan food, one for vegetarian food and one for egg dishes. Her whole family for years has been pescatarians (they eat fish, but no other meat) because her sister has an allergy to pork and beef, but there was still a learning curve in understanding the different categories of non-meat eating.
From swap meet stall to food truck to restaurant
In truth, the food started as almost a side hustle for the family, a way to introduce people to the product.
When Martinez started, she was selling fresh jackfruit for five dollars a pound at the swap meet in Madera, mostly to make some extra money. She wasn’t importing it yet, but she sourced the fruit from a seller in Los Angles whom she knew got it from her hometown.
Within weeks, there were lines of people waiting and the businesses expanded to swamp meets in Hanford and Fresno.
Martinez started hosting impromptu classes, making jackfuit smoothies and teaching people what to do with the fruit.
“There was no name, no logo,” Cox says, “just pop-ups with drinks and tea.”
The first jackfruit tacos Martinez made, she gave away. She was afraid to charge people because jackfruit wasn’t really a thing people knew about yet.
Those people kept coming back and eventually the food truck began to get some attention.
It got hooked into the food truck scene at Gazebo Gardens, where it really started to grew a loyal customer base who started asking for different foods.
They wanted chips and cheese. So, Martinez started making nachos, and also jackfruit nacho cheese.
People wanted enchiladas, flautas and tamales.
Martinez and the family were happy to oblige.
“If they’re requesting it, why not just make it for them,” Cox says.
Plans to distribute jackfruit products locally
The restaurant allows La Jacka to actually present the food properly, in something other then cardboard to-go boxes.
Also, it’s creating the capital (that’s both the space and money) to expand offerings.
For instance, the family started a vegan bakery at the restaurant, selling pies and Mexican sweet breads, such as Pan de Muerto for Dia de Los Muertos.
La Jacka also recently debuted a line of prepackaged, ready-to-cook jackfruit in six flavors. Options include plain, which can be used like chicken; a smokey-flavored asada; a pineapple-tinged pastor; a pork-like carnitas; chili verde; and birria. There is also vegan nacho cheese made out of carrots, potatoes, jackfruit and assorted spices.
The products are all available at the restaurant, with plans to be in Fresno-area stores next year, Cox says.
Also on the the list for next year is a line of mushroom and jackfruit seed coffees and a jackfruit kombucha, which will be sold at the restaurant.
The company is courting restaurants in Texas and Arizona to grow its importing business and looking into franchising opportunities. It hopes to have that in place by 2025.
On the 10-year plan, Martinez has partnered with a vegan leather maker to create jackfruit fabric for the fashion industry.
The whole thing — becoming an entrepreneur running several businesses off this fruit that she grew up with as child — is a dream, Martinez says, her daughter translating from Spanish.
“It’s a realization of what we can do as a family.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2023 at 5:30 AM.