Meet Cely Rodriguez and Moraima Fuentes of The Jibarito Stop

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cely Rodriguez and Moraima Fuentes.

Cely and Moraima, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
So The Jibarito Stop started back in 2012 with a food truck. Back in those days, Chicago did not permit food trucks to cook onboard, you could only sell packaged food that had been prepared in a commissary. This is very difficult to do since what we wanted to sell was the fried jibarito sandwich.

We were unable to do this at that time, however, we did serve other well-known PR food staples. We were very fortunate that the Loop lunch crowd lined up day after day to try our cuisine. After 3 years of running the food truck, we decided that it was the right moment to transition into a storefront; that was 2 years ago.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In the early days (food truck), things were very, very tough. The logistics of having to cook in a commissary and load all your food into a truck AND find parking in time for lunch is very difficult.

Not to mention the parking regulations that were taking place at that time regarding how long food trucks could park and how far away from other businesses you can be. It was basically an uphill battle. We knew that at some point we would either have to close the food truck business altogether or take the logical next step, which was to open a storefront.

The Jibarito Stop – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are a fast-casual Puerto Rican restaurant which specializes in serving the Jibarito sandwich. A Jibarito is a sandwich that consists of 2 fried pieces of flatten plantains, serving as the ‘bun’. The sandwich can be made from pork, chicken, veggies or the most popular, steak. We feel that one of the things that sets us apart is that we make everything in-house, including our desserts and our pasteles, which can be described as Puerto Rican tamales.

These pasteles are very labor intensive, however, we make them based on family recipes and do not skimp on ingredients. We also cook everything with our very own Sofrito, which is the base for everything we cook or marinade. It is made with green and red bell peppers, onions, garlic, olive oil, cilantro and other secret spices. We’d like to think that by making everything in-house, it will reflect in the flavors.

What we are most proud of is introducing people that have never tried Puerto Rican food, to a new cuisine. You see, when we first started (and even now at the restaurant), people will ask us for tacos, burritos or some other Mexican food staple. Mexican and Puerto Rican cuisine are very different and we love exposing people to something that they’ve never tried.

It is our mission to bring these Caribbean flavors into mainstream America. We felt that there was a huge need for the underrepresented cuisine (i.e., Caribbean) to be made as accessible as tacos, pizza, and pasta.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment for us has been seeing the pride in our mother’s faces when they walked into the restaurant.

Pricing:

• Jibarito Sandwich (steak, chicken, pork) with a side of arroz con gandules $8.99
• Empanadas (beef, shrimp, veggie) $2.25-$3.00
• Plates (steak, chicken, pork) with a side of arroz con gandules and a side ($10.99)
• Frituras (fritters) $2.25-$3.00

Contact Info:

• Address: 1646 W. 18th Street, Chicago, IL 60608
• Website: www.thejibaritostop.com
• Phone: 3129880585
• Email: info@thejibaritostop.com
• Instagram: www.facebook.com/TheJibaritoStop
• Facebook: @TheJibaritoStop
• Twitter: @TheJibaritoStop
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-jibarito-stop-chicago-2

Image Credit:
Modern Farmette

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