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Business & Tech

Novato Eatery Cooks up Westside Success Recipe

Gourmet burger shop helps boost struggling westside shopping center.

More than a decade of restaurant management led John Carter to the same conclusion expressed by a whispering background voice in “Field of Dreams.”

The essence of the iconic "if we build it, they will come" mantra sums up Carter's response to a question he's been fielding over and over since opening the doors to JJ's Burger Joint, one of Novato's newest eateries on the western side of town where development has slowed to a crawl in recent years.

“Regardless of where I am I feel that if I have good service and I sell good food, people will come,” Carter said. “This end of town doesn't have much but it's a great (area).”

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Carter opened JJ's with his wife, Joy. The Rohnert Park couple scouted the area for several days before signing a lease on the storefront at the nearly half-empty Square Shopping Center.

The close proximity to several schools, including San Marin High, and the foot traffic in surrounding the areas made the location appealing.

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“We felt that just the foot traffic alone would get us a start and then we'd be able to build our business,” Carter said.

These days the Carters are cooking up a storm, with their char-broiler and smoker filling the shopping center with the aromas of gourmet eats.

The Carters are serving up grass-fed corn-finished beef along with pulled pork, ribs and beef brisket. They serve GMO-free beef, with no hormones used at any point in the life of the cattle.

“It's been going well so far,” Carter said.

The early returns support his assertion. So far, JJ's has gotten solid Yelp reviews.

“Try it and you will not care if In-and-Out Burgers opens in Novato,” writes one reviewer, alluding to the popular chain eatery's rumored opening in town.

Carter acknowledged that there's a pride element in helping boost the struggling shopping center.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I take some pride in the fact that I might help reinvigorate this area.

“If I show people that I can put a restaurant in this shopping center that works, maybe other people will come in here.”

Carter has already seen potential business owners look at some of the shopping center's empty storefronts recently, a positive sign in his estimation.

“I've gotten to know the people next door at Oasis (Natural Foods),” Carter said. “They're wonderful people and if I can help bring more customers to them that would make me feel good.”

And if increased increased development means increased competition, bring it on, Carter says.

“I'd encourage another restaurant to come in here,” he said. “More choices in this plaza can only make my business better; somebody that wasn't intending to come down to (JJ's), that was going to that place, they'd see us and they'd try us next time.”



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