JC’s Lighthouse Chocolates and Food Park began with two sisters, Claudia Anderson and Jennifer Moore, who had the dream of opening a snow cone stand.
Despite the lack of a physical location, the sisters constantly aspired to build a business together. But when a spot downtown came up for sale, Jennifer Moore said she was inspired.
“I remember thinking, ‘That would be a really good spot for whatever it is we come up with,'” Moore said. “But I knew I was going to have to sell a lot of snow cones to pay rent.”
The dream continued to develop with the sisters adding rare flavors of Italian creme sodas and food trucks. JC’s Lighthouse has hosted Crooked Creek Meats, The Seasoned Skillet, Caitie Pies, Black Cat’s Blues and BBQ. Anderson hopes to gain more partnerships with local food trucks.
“We are talking to other food trucks like Dad’s Ice Cream, The London Express, 1881 and Big Country Burgers and More,” Anderson said. “Texas Doughboys wants to work with us but in a different way where their products would be sold in our store.”
The grand opening of the food truck park was Friday. The event featured Caitie Pies and Black Cat’s Blues and BBQ. Caitlin Wallace, co-owner of Caitie Pies with Kealoha Villa, said she was excited about the new partnership with JC’s Lighthouse.
“We’re excited for the future of this food park,” said Wallace. “It’s the perfect place to just hangout, enjoy the evening, and each other.”
The duo is already planning for the future of the company. Moore and Henderson expect to turn the bays into seating areas that would keep customers out of the cold, heat or rain. They also expect to expand their hours into the lunchtime business.
“We are hoping it is going to grow,” Moore said. “We have the capability and outlets for four food trucks plugged in. So that would be the goal, to at least have four. And you never know, it could get bigger than that. Community support has been really good so far.”
JC’s Lighthouse also gives 10 percent of all profit to ministry work in Cambodia. Moore established this contribution after her time volunteering on a short term mission trip with an old friend and co-worker who eventually decided to move her family to Cambodia to continue serving.
“She’s been there about seven years,” Moore said. “So I want to be able to support her and I thought this would be a great way to do that. Everything that we sell, we’ll give a portion to Cambodia. In the seven years they’ve been there, they have built 25 schools and they do church planting. They educate the church planters, so they’ve actually educated around 144 of the church planters.”
JC’s Lighthouse is now open for business in downtown Abilene, offering a casual hangout spot serving chocolates, snow cones, Italian creme sodas and more.
