Jackie Jackson is on a roll, and she’s hungry for more. And from the looks of it, so is San Jose.
From cooking for her church and catering sororities to opening up her second restaurant location, the South Bay restaurateur has come leaps and bounds.
Her soul food restaurant, Jackie’s Place, started off as a catering company 20 years ago but morphed into a restaurant during the pandemic. And now this Black-owned business is expanding to a new location in San Jose’s SoFA District.
“San Jose is my home, and because of the diversity we get good reception from all walks of life, not just from African-Americans but from Chinese, Filipino, Mexican and whatever you can think of,” Jackson says. “It’s been heartwarming to see because I’ve always had a multicultural set of people around me.”
Coming from a big family, Jackson says, her mother taught her how to take care of a family. Among the skills she learned was how to clean and embroider, but the thing Jackie enjoyed doing the most was cooking.
“My mother was a chef and she taught us everything, but I latched onto cooking the most. I’ve always had a large family, so I felt that cooking was very important for me. And then I also started cooking for my church,” Jackson says. “Before I knew it I was catapulted into a business because everyone kept asking who made the food.”
Roots in Catering
Jackson grew accustomed to cooking for her family and church; then one day she was asked to help cater for the sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha—a ceremony the Emmanuel Baptist Church hosts once a year to celebrate Black students in the Bay Area.
“It was my first catering job and there were 300 people that I helped all by myself. After that job I started getting offered other jobs from people,” Jackson recalls. “That’s when I decided to open a catering spot.
“This was 20 years ago,” she says. “A restaurant wasn’t something I ever saw coming.”
A restaurant didn’t seem to be in the cards for Jackson, who thought it seemed like a lot of work. But she knew that San Jose needed a business like Jackie’s Place to bring life back to the city—especially coming out of the pandemic.
“In 2018 my daughter convinced me to open up a small cafe area with up to 25 seats. We found the location, and at our grand opening we had 600 people that showed up to support us,” she explains. “I had previous customers from my catering company and so many people from the community.”
Fast forward five years later, Jackie’s Place has seen much success at its North First Street location. The second store, in downtown San Jose, will be near other Black-owned businesses, such as Nirvana Soul.
“We originally were looking for a small place to divert all our DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats orders. We then realized that there were two other Black-owned businesses in the area and now there’s going to be us there,” Jackson says. “This is something that the city hasn’t seen before, and It became apparent that it’s necessary. It may be setting the precedent of the future.”
Downtown Flavors
As far as menu items, everything from oxtails and Southern fried fish to such sides as mac & cheese and honey butter cornbread will remain. However, with a new location there is talk about potential menu additions.
“That area will dictate to us what we’re going to have to change. We’re going to have to watch the neighborhood and see if there’s a lot of young people and students walking through there so we may cater toward that,” Jackson said. “We are thinking of adding a breakfast/brunch menu or stuff on the go for the people that are walking by. But the primary soul food menu stuff will stay, of course. I have some items that I am currently testing right now.
“It’s exciting to see where we are and where we are going,” she adds. “My family has many ideas of what we want to do.”
Jackie’s place will be opening the new Sofa District location at 321 S. First St. San Jose with a block party on April 27 from 2 to 7pm. The business posted on Facebook, “We’ve got the whole block on lock—so come take a ‘Soul Stroll’ down South First and support all the Black-owned businesses of the SoFA District.”
There will be live music, local vendors, an outdoor fish fry, games, giveaways and more. Admission is free. The original location at 840 N. First St. in San Jose will be closed that day.
For more information, visit jackiesplacesj.com.
I remember when Jackie started out on Sixth St., by Taylor. I love her food. She has the best. My friend Norma H. introduced me to that place and I love it.