Judy’s On North Launching Food Truck
Brick-and-mortar restaurant on East Side still closed for repairs, but favorites from menu will soon be available.
Site of Judy’s on North, 2207 E. North Ave. photo taken Dec. 13, 2023 by Sophie Bolich.
One month has passed since an overnight fire caused extensive damage to Judy’s On North on Dec. 13, leaving customers unable to order their favorite dishes from the East Side Mexican restaurant, 2207 E. North Ave.
Even the owners are battling cravings, specifically for “the rice and beans and horchata,” Judith Figueroa and Kevin Lopez wrote in a Friday evening social media post.
The restaurant will likely remain closed for some months for cleanup and restoration, but the mother-son duo has a temporary solution in the meantime.
Judy’s On North will launch a food truck, providing a limited menu of signature dishes to tide guests over until the restaurant’s reopening. The truck is expected to make its debut at the start of February, but could be up and running even earlier, according to Figueroa and Lopez.
The food truck’s pared-down menu will feature “a lot of favorites,” and is likely to expand as the owners adjust to the new format, they said.
As for the brick-and-mortar location, there’s still plenty of work ahead.
“The aftermath of the fire was pretty extensive and caused a great amount of damage,” Figueroa and Lopez wrote in the social media post. “We will continue to update on a reopening as we learn more but for now it’s safe to say it’s a bit of ways away.”
Photos of the restaurant posted to Facebook show the aftermath of the fire, which ravaged the kitchen and destroyed much of the dining room. Pieces of the restaurant’s drop ceiling are now piled atop the bar, while loose wires hang from the remaining perimeter track. In the kitchen, most of the equipment is burned beyond recognition and the floor is buried under a layer of ash and debris.
Nobody was injured in the blaze, which ignited in the kitchen at just before 4 a.m. on Dec. 13. An investigation into the cause of the fire is still ongoing, though the owners said that “it seems to have been a tragic accident.”
Prior to the fire, Judy’s On North was open for more than four years at the address, formerly the site of Jalisco Mexican Restaurant. Figueroa and Lopez, both industry veterans, took over the space in 2019.
Additional information regarding an opening date and location for the Judy’s On North food truck will be posted to the restaurant’s Facebook page.
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