Omaha Exploration

After operating a small grocery store in Chicago, Ramon Jacobo saw an opportunity to fulfill a need within the underserved Hispanic community in Omaha.

Ramon was born in Omaha after his parents had emigrated from Mexico for work. During the Great Depression, they returned to their native country. Ramon remained in Mexico until after he married his bride, Cirina, in 1952. Afterward, the couple returned to the United States and settled in Chicago’s South Side.

Ramon worked more than 20 years for an appliance company while Cirina operated a small grocery store. After learning of the large Hispanic community in Omaha, many of whom had arrived in town to work in the stockyards and meatpacking plants, they made a plan to move and open a grocery store in South Omaha.

Despite being told the market in Omaha was non-existent, they remained steadfast. They took over the former Benak’s Grocery store at 6330 S. 30th Street in 1976, and it didn’t take long to confirm they had made the right call. The grocery was a hit, and within three years they opened a bakery at 3702 S. 24th Street. During the early years, Ramon made weekly round-trips between Omaha and Chicago to purchase the Hispanic foods needed to keep his store stocked, leaving Omaha at 4 AM and returning by 2 PM.

The store’s steady growth eventually allowed them to merge the grocery and bakery into a single building in 1989. The space at 4621 S. 24th Street had been a Payless Shoe Source since the 1960s. By then, keeping it stocked required a semi-trailer load of fresh and packaged foods.

Governor Ben Nelson visited South Omaha in 1992 and made a stop at Jacobo’s. For Carlos, the visit meant something. “To have a political official visit you, it’s a matter of pride. Being a minority, we have to fight a lot of stereotypes. We hope this shows, and not just to the governor, that there are Hispanics who are progressing. We started from the very bottom.” He went on to say, “I won’t tell him what to do, I’ll just show him what I do. And maybe someday, the Hispanic leaders will want an hour of his time and he’ll give it to them because he’ll say, ‘I remember Carlos and his family. They were good people.’”

The reach of Jacobo’s grew well beyond its original customer base. When the store first opened, nine out of ten customers were Hispanic. In recent years, that split has shifted to nearly half non-Hispanic. Ramon proudly said his store was like the United Nations, a reflection of the many races and ethnicities who walked through the door. His son, Carlos, added that Jacobo’s helps bridge ethnic gaps by giving people who may have little exposure to Hispanic culture the chance to shop alongside Spanish speakers and see how much they have in common.

Despite its success, Martha Jacobo said her father deliberately chose not to expand beyond a single location. “Dad wanted the store managed his way. He didn’t want to move out of South Omaha because the community had embraced him, and a store somewhere else would’ve lost something.”

The store is particularly popular for its salsa, made from a recipe developed by Cirina. Once non-Hispanic customers discovered it, sales quadrupled. By that time, it took two employees making salsa all day just to keep up with demand. For the uninitiated, the salsa is tomatoey and thick with fresh cilantro, garlic, and onions. Most customers, of course, buy a bag or two of homemade tortilla chips to go with it.

Jacobo’s remains a family-owned business despite the passing of its founders, Ramon in 2020 and Cirina a year later. Nearly 50 years since it first opened, the grocery continues to specialize in deli foods made fresh daily, including enchiladas, flautas, beans, rice, carnitas, pork tamales, and fresh handmade tortillas from its traditional family recipe. You will also find baked goods, breads, and pastries made from scratch. That Jacobo’s has thrived this long as an independent, family-owned grocery is a feat in itself, in an era when stores like it have become increasingly rare.

The gamble the Jacobo family made nearly five decades ago paid off in ways that stretch well beyond the South Omaha neighborhood and well beyond the Hispanic community. Rather than take the store to other parts of town, customers from other parts of town came to them. Today, the store draws people of all backgrounds and serves as a melting pot in its own right, still rooted in the South Omaha Business District. Jacobo’s is exactly where it belongs.

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Sources

• Omaha World-Herald archives
• Council Bluffs Nonpareil archives
• https://www.jacobos.com/about.php
• Omaha Magazine, Bringing A Taste Of Their Homeland: Immigrants Diversify Omaha Food Scene, 2020.