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Many people may ask what is El Jibarito, to begin with the name was given to a Puerto Rican farmer and is also the name of a great sandwich. This sandwich is made with fried green plantains instead of bread, it has a crunch, and a delicious unique taste.

Along with that, this food truck was an idea formed from family between Jose and Maribel Colón and Frances and Victor Cuenca, (all co-owners of El Jibarito Food Truck). There is a long story behind the owners and their ideas. Jose and Frances come from a long line of family owned businesses. An example is their father owning a restaurant in Puerto Rico for over thirty-eight years. While Victor has over fifteen years as a chef and Maribel has the brilliance behind this whole operation. The entrepreneur team was naturally formed among this family.

Maribel contacted Frances about opening up a coffee shop knowing that Frances’s passions are baking and drinking coffee. After a lot of research they found that renting a space was too expensive. They had remembered that back in 2013 Jose had purchase a truck and mentioned to Frances that he would like to go back into the food industry. Frances at the time had turned him down knowing how hard the restaurants business is. Now only three years later, they have decided to go along with Jose’s original idea.

Jose and Maribel has always enjoyed inviting friends and family to their house to eat jibaritos, they quickly realized that this could become something great. To get the ball rolling and see how other people would like jibaritos. We decided to do a lunch fundraiser at our local church in St. Paul, and serve the sandwich. It was a complete success many people bought more and even ordered some to take home. So that is when we decided it had to be on our menu. Not just another thing on the menu either, we had to make it our main entrée. After one bite you are hooked.We started carefully studying about the food truck business when in March 2016, we applied for the permits to start construction on the food truck. It has been a great learning experience and the results after four months of intense labor are finally here. Ready to serve in the Minnesota community a great taste of the Puerto Rican Cuisine.
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