The honor, or insult, depending upon who you're talking to, got a hearty laugh from owner Jack Martinez, who's also the brain behind the burrito. When I got him on the horn earlier today, Martinez admitted that la fitness policía from Health.com called a few months ago flinging questions. "They wanted to know how much fat was in the burrito, how many calories there were, how many eggs -- this, that and the other," said Martinez, who wondered aloud why they weren't picking on hot dogs or pizza -- and more to the point, why they were rubber-stamping his burrito, which isn't even on the menu. "For crying out loud, it's a challenge -- not a regular item on my menu -- and frankly, if someone wants to partake in that challenge, it's their choice, their call," opined Martinez, adding that over half of his menu is vegetarian, with several carb-free and calorie-light dishes.
Dishes that will grace the board at his third Jack-n-Grill outpost at 9310 Sheridan Boulevard, a 6,800-square-foot, 230-seat space that he plans to open in early September. "My goal is to open one restaurant a year, until each of my six kids and my brother have their own restaurant," at which time, quips Martinez, he and his wife, Anna, "can retire to Bora Bora, sip mojitos on white sandy beaches and text my kids to send more money."
A request that may come sooner rather than later if you consider the $30,000 tortilla maker that Martinez purchased for the new restaurant, an investment, he says, that was a necessity for the first Jack-n-Grill bakery. "We're going to make fresh corn and flour tortillas that we'll serve here and package to go, sopaipillas, cinnamon rolls, empanadas, Spanish pastelitos with prunes, cherries, apples, peaches and nuts and biscoitos, sugar cookies made with anise," revealed Martinez.
In addition to the bakery, "We have a phenomenal bar where we'll do happy hour seven nights a week, garage doors that open to the outside and a fantastic patio," Martinez told me.
And of course, they'll have that twelve-egg breakfast burrito, too.
