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…