Fatboy Fried Rice grew in about five years from feeding a neighborhood to setting up food trucks to opening its first conventional brick-and-mortar location.
Owners Joshua Valencia and J.M. Quinones and managing partner Sammy Masamayor, all 28 years old, started selling food to family and neighbors out of Valencia’s parents’ house in 2021. Five years later, they held a July 1 soft opening for their new restaurant at 9735 Old St. Augustine Road, Unit 9, in the Mission Square Center off San Jose Boulevard in Mandarin.
The three are from the Philippines and came to Jacksonville as youngsters after their parents emigrated to the U.S. Each had some restaurant kitchen experience when they began operating out of the Valencia family home.
About five months later, they spent $16,000 they had raised and saved to purchase their first used food truck from Facebook Marketplace, Valencia said. Since 2021, the team has purchased a food truck a year.
Instead of driving from spot to spot, the trucks are parked at three locations: 11450 Beach Blvd., 1429 Cassat Ave. and 10204 Lem Turner Road. The fourth is mobile and used for catering and special events.
Like many food truck operators, they rented space in a commercial kitchen for daily prep work. But when their lease was about to expire, Valencia found the space that would become Fatboy Fried Rice.
Instead of settling for their own prep kitchen, the 2,700-square-foot space looked like a good spot to open a restaurant as well, Valencia said.
Valencia said the commissary they were renting had become the de facto headquarters for the food trucks, but they were outgrowing it when the lease ended. The new space seemed like an obvious opportunity.
“So when this place kind of came along, we were like, ‘Hey, man, we are already going to get another place for the commissary, why not serve out of here and do that too?’” Valencia said.
JVI Construction Group of Jacksonville built-out the new restaurant. The partners did most of the interior design with the help of Patrick Molleda, Valencia’s brother-in-law, who had architecture experience in Dubai.
The cost to open was around $210,000, paid in cash without a loan, Valencia said.
The Fatboy Fried Rice menu is Asian-inspired fusion, Valencia said. The dishes are family recipes inspired by their travels in Japan, South Korea and throughout Southeast Asia.
Items include a lemon pork chop, bulgogi (sliced rib-eye with onions and scallions, topped with a sweet mayonnaise and sriracha sauce), cheeseburger fried rice, shrimp fried rice, wontons and spring rolls. Prices are $10 to $18.
Sake, soju, beer and wine are available.
The restaurant will seat about 50. Between the restaurant and the food trucks, Fatboy Fried Rice Food Group employs 17.
The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and closed Monday.