Words by Tom Price
Photos by Tom Price and Joshua Rivera

She can calculate the trajectory of a rocket with a graphing calculator and a scratch pad.

He can sketch the evening sky with the detail of a 39-mega-pixel camera using his No. 2 pencil.

Janna Rodriguez and Oscar Torres have a symbiotic relationship that neither math nor art can explain. The owners of J&R Tacos have been running their business down to a science.

Rodriguez, a native of Durango, Mexico and Torres from Mexico City, recently celebrated their colorful downtown taqueria’s three-year anniversary.

“I always had the idea of working in a restaurant. I wanted to interact with the community,” says Rodriguez, who holds a bachelor’s degree in math from CSU Stanislaus and is currently chasing her second degree, this time in mechanical engineering at UC Merced. “I had never worked anywhere like this.”

This place of theirs, a colorful and quaint spot in the heart of downtown, is a snapshot of the American Dream: Two young adults with a drawing and a dream build from scratch a restaurant that has become a staple for downtown patrons.

“I walked in the first time and it was a slightly different atmosphere than I expected,”
says Harry Jacobs, the restaurant’s first customer and a downtown resident. “It was unlike any other taco shop I had ever been in. The décor was unique, the food was fresh — I was sure it was going to be a huge success.”

They have found success, and it hasn’t been just business sense — or common sense — for that matter. J&R Tacos is built on a sense of family and a hunger for knowledge. To know Rodriguez and Torres is to understand why, on a Thursday night when most of downtown is asleep, college students are digging for change for a couple tacos.

They respect the students because they are students. They can empathise with the college crowd and they understand the benefits of a healthy thirst for knowledge.

“I always admire people out there who continue their education. I want to support them,” says Torres, who dropped out of Mexico’s equivalent of high school before he was 17. Torres recently joined the ranks of the college student after receiving his GED in October. He is now studying art and psychology at Merced College. “We want to help out in some way. We want to offer a place to feel good and hang out.”

Torres and Rodriguez first met at a backyard BBQ in 2001. Torres was the cook for the family gathering (Torres’ brother is married to Rodriguez’s cousin) and Rodriguez took notice.

“She came over and said the food was really good and asked me where I learned to cook,” says Torres. “It was really a short conversation, but she did mention she wanted to open a restaurant.”

Neither of them forgot that day. And they stayed in touch, until one day, they decided to take the leap. And they have been inseparable since. They are best friends, constantly in contact. Torres says it was Rodriguez who inspired him to go back to school and Rodriguez says he has taught her it is always possible to be a better person and enjoy life.

The family feel they try so hard to create is nothing new to Torres, who worked at a handful of restaurants in Mexico, including two owned by his father, Ricardo Torres. The first was Las Cazuelas and the second El Farolito. The latter provided the framework for what is now J&R Tacos.
Torres’ father never got to see his son’s restaurant.

“When we just opened J&R my dad passed away. Before he got sick, he wanted to come to visit us to see the Taco shop, but he couldn’t make it,” says Torres.
“Everything I learned was because he taught me, and I’m sure he would be proud of me if he were here.”
No memento from their whirlwind rise from new friends to restaurant owners is more valuable than a drawing on a simple letter-size sheet of paper. Torres, during the infant stages of development, drew his first vision of J&R Tacos.

• Login or register to post comments