 Joaquina Mexican Snacks is the latest culinary addition to the Poplar Grove neighborhood. Located on 484 South 900 West, this small and welcoming restaurant boasts a variety of Mexican dishes and snacks straight out of Mexico City. The menu features everything from tamales, tortas, and elotes to sweet treats like crepes and delicious fresh juices. Every dish is made fresh to order and served with the customer and the community in mind. Poplar Grove Community Council interviewed Joaquina's owner, Fabiola Gomez, to get the story behind the neighborhood's newest restaurant.
Tell us how you came to Salt Lake City and why you opened Joaquina Mexican Snacks? I'm from Mexico City. Joaquina is owned by myself, my mother Patricia Gomez, and my husband Marcus Cortez. We moved to Utah 6 years ago. My mother and I got a job at Cafe Zupas, and we worked there for 6 years. But we wanted to open our own restaurant. We wanted to open something authentic, but that served everyone. Some Mexican places here don't speak English, so we wanted to open something for everyone. How did Joaquina Mexican Snacks get its name? The name comes from my Grandma. Her name was Joaquina, my mom got divorced when I was very little and she helped take care of me. She was a very special person and passed away, it was really sad for me. Her name is a treasure, so when we got this place we named it after her. It's easy to say too! It was a good start for us to start with a good name. Cheers to her! Tell us about opening the restaurant and what it was like? For 4 years, my mother and I passed this location many times taking my kids to school. We like to manifest things. So everytime we drove by this location, we thought it would make a good restaurant. So we stopped and knocked on the door and no one answered. Later we met the owner at a yardsale. After asking her about the space, she offered it to us and we started leasing it in June 2024. We thought the space would be perfect for snacks. We didn't see any other palaces selling Mexican snacks, so we decided on snacks. We started with $10,000, I saved $5000 and my mom saved $5000, and we built everything ourselves. My dad painted the sign! We didn't know how to open a business. In Mexico, you just set up outside your door to start selling. So when we got the list of things we had to do, we hired someone to help us. He took too long, so I went to City Hall to find help. They told me everything I needed to do, so I made all the calls and filled out all the forms. We did everything. Now that I know how to do it all and I want to open more businesses. What does Joaquina bring to Poplar Grove? Freshness. Everything is made fresh, and may take a little longer, but we want everything to be high quality. Bringing people together and community. I want to host people from all over the neighborhood, from all over the world. In Mexico families are really close, we all live together. I want to bring a little of that here. Joaquina Mexican Snacks is located at 484 South 900 West. You can follow them on Instagram at @joaquinamexicansnacks.
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