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Jimmy Johns sandwiches coming to Manteca
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Manteca is getting a Jimmy John’s gourmet sandwich shop in the same complex housing Chipotle’s on East Yosemite Avenue at Commerce Drive near Highway 99.
They will add a new wrinkle to the local sandwich shop landscape that includes five Subway locations given that Jimmy John’s — also known as JJ’s — specializes in delivery.
There are more than 2,500 Jimmy John’s locations. The closest to Manteca is in the 1400 block of Staniford Avenue in Modesto, the 3100 block of Geer Road in Turlock as well as Livermore, Pleasanton, San Francisco, and Citrus Heights.
The store will be located near two other new dining options expected to break ground in the coming months. One is a Habit Burger Grill that has been approved for a 2,852-square-foot restaurant with a 309-square-foot patio dining area as well as a drive-thru lane adjacent to Panera Bread on East Yosemite. The other is Chick-fil-A on the northeast corner of East Yosemite and Northwoods avenues where the Super Buffet Chinese restaurant is now located. Chick-fil-A has been approved for a 4,172-square-foot restaurant with drive-thru service. They have yet to submit a demolition permit request to start work on the new Chick-fill-A.
East Yosemite Avenue now has 30 dining options including places such as Starbucks, Jamba Juice, and Coldstone Ice Cream between Pestana Avenue and just west of Spreckels/Cottage Avenue. When the three new places open the count will jump to 33.

Manteca firm is king
of the bell peppers
Eckert’s Cold Stage — one of 11 concerns with 75 plus years of history in Manteca honored by the Manteca Chamber of Commerce during Wednesday’s State of the City at the Manteca Transit Center — is the undisputed king of bell pepper processing.
The firm with operations on Moffat Boulevard as well as in Escalon on McHenry Avenue dominates the North American bell pepper processing market. They process and package 150 million pounds of bell peppers a year making them “the” bell pepper processor.
If you have a pizza at virtually any pizza parlor in the country or a frozen food item with bell peppers, it is almost a certainty it was processed by Eckert’s.
 Eckert’s has been around for 75 years.
Another Manteca
firm is a heavyweight
in wine industry
Another “old-timer” in Manteca that was honored — Delicato Family Vineyards — was ranked as the seventh largest winery in the United States in 2016 by Wine Business Magazine based on 9.2 million cases sold. DFV now sells nearly 10 million cases of wine annually. It is one of five of the seven largest wineries in the country that have the bulk of their operations based in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties. The others are E & J Gallo, The Wine group, Trinchero Family Estates, and Bronco Wine Company.
Delicato just broke ground on a 700,000-square-foot expansion of their bottling and warehouse operations just north of Manteca at French Camp Road where Gaspare Indelicato founded the winery 94 years ago.
The family winery has 338 year-round workers plus another 350 plus seasonal employees.
As a side note, San Joaquin County is the undisputed wine grape leader in California — and the United States — with 73,275 acres devotes to growing grapes for wine. Stanislaus County is next at 59,508 acres, followed by Sonoma County at 59,508 acres, Monterey County at 45,416 acres, and Napa County at 45,339 acres.
There are also more than 90 wineries in San Joaquin County, with most clustered around Lodi where vineyards produce 40 percent of California’s premium Zinfandel grapes. There are also wineries in Tracy, Ripon, and Manteca.

Oldest Manteca concern
has staying power
Perhaps the best zinger at the State of the City Wednesday came from Janice Zacharias, president of the East Union Cemetery Association.
The association was the oldest concern honored with roots going back 141 years to 1877.
“We’re the only business in town that is definitely not going away,” Zacharias quipped.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com