On Main Street in Hanover, a familiar restaurant has taken on a new name and a renewed sense of purpose. What remains is commitment to the community it serves. Boloco, which had operated in the Hanover community for 21 years, is now BocaSoca. At the heart of the rebranding, updated menu, and reinvigorated enthusiasm is the new owner, CJ Jackson. 

CJ didn’t grow up thinking she wanted to own a restaurant. She took a more circuitous route. “I come from a pretty impoverished community in East St. Louis,” CJ says. Even as a child, she felt the need to act. “I remember looking around and thinking, ‘someone needs to fix this.’ For some reason in my mind, I decided I needed to become a lawyer.” CJ became the first in her family to attend college, the first to earn an MBA, and eventually the first to graduate from law school. She attended Vermont Law School in South Royalton. After law school, CJ worked in corporate finance, real estate, and community development.

 

Aha Moment

Even with her career going well, CJ says something was missing. On a solo trip to Spain, she remembers, “I had one of those Eat, Pray, Love moments. Being in Barcelona is when everything came back to me from when I was a little girl.” The city’s meticulous design and sense of shared space clarified her purpose. “It was something about seeing the intentionality of the architecture that made me realize I wanted to focus on helping people improve their lives.” She knew she could not continue on the same path.

When CJ returned to the United States, she made a decision that surprised many around her. “I wasn’t the same after that trip,” she says, and so she left the corporate world. “I wanted to focus more directly on community development.” 

Over time, she had a realization that restaurants are the anchors of community. “They are not simply places to eat, but spaces where people from all walks of life intersect and interact.” CJ’s belief, rooted in direct community engagement, led her to a low-risk way to test her passion. Vermont State Senator Joe Major, who was also executive director of the Upper Valley Aquatic Center in White River Junction, allowed her to rent a space at the center, and she opened a smoothie bar. 

 

Vision, Fate, and Pepper

But CJ’s vision continued to grow. As she began to think about a larger space where healthy, accessible food and a sense of belonging could coexist, someone suggested she talk to longtime restaurateur John Pepper. They thought he might be able to provide some guidance and advice. CJ says she hesitated at first. “I thought, ‘Oh, that’s silly. Why would I reach out to this guy?’” However, shortly after, someone else made the same suggestion. CJ believes some coincidences are fate, so she followed through.

When she finally met with John, she got more than advice. When he asked, “Do you want to
own Boloco?” CJ was given a life-changing opportunity. John was in the midst of winding down
his many restaurant locations and contemplating retirement and new ventures. 

CJ recalls being in business school and studying B Corporations. B Corporations are for-profit
businesses certified and committed to meeting high standards of social and environmental responsibility in how they operate and engage with the community—balancing profit with purpose. Bocolo was a B Corporation. “I remember saying to myself in school, I really want to be a part of a brand that aligns social responsibility with profits.” And now the opportunity was presenting itself. 

Shared Responsibility

Before making any commitments, CJ wanted to understand the business from the ground up. She wanted to learn from the inside, the pace, the pressure, and the people. In 2023, she began working at Bocolo—not as an owner, but as a staff member. She didn’t announce her intentions. “I said to John, ‘Don’t tell anyone.’ I just wanted to work alongside the existing staff and really, truly understand the business and understand the brand.” 

It was a challenging time for the restaurant industry, still dealing with the unpredictability of post-COVID instability and staffing shortages. CJ recalls, “If a person called out, I would volunteer to work, even if I was there from early in the day until night.” Despite the strain, she says, “I loved every bit of it.” Family members questioned her decision. “They were like, ‘Are you crazy? You’ve got an MBA; you have a JD—what are you doing?’” But the experience confirmed her instincts. She loved being part of a team. She loved serving customers. And she saw clearly what kind of culture she wanted to build if she took ownership: one rooted in support, communication, and shared responsibility.

New Beginnings Built on the Past

By early 2024, when John Pepper was ready to retire, CJ had made her decision, and she says, “He was confident he was leaving the restaurant in capable hands.” October 2024 marked the beginning of a new owner and the new name: BocaSoca.

CJ says she has no intention of erasing the past. Instead, she wants to build on it. “I want to preserve the spirit of Bocolo but simplify operations.” While some signature items were removed from the menu, it was for practicality, not to snub tradition. “It’s very hard to train some of the younger generation on remembering so many things,” CJ explains. The solution was a build-your-own model that empowers customers and streamlines services. 

Longtime favorites are still available upon request, as is the house sauce. “If you come in and ask for a Modern Mexican, you can still get that,” she says. The difference is flexibility. This approach made the kitchen more efficient, simplified training, and provided customers with a wider range of choices. Today, guests can customize freely, adding vegetables like broccoli, corn, or carrots, and experimenting with new combinations and sauces.

CJ’s guiding principle is simple: Get the basics right. Consistency, flavor, and affordability matter, especially in an economy where dining out can feel like a luxury. BocaSoca may not be “fine dining,” she says, but every customer deserves a meal that feels thoughtfully prepared and reasonably priced. Her priorities are consistent. “If we’re going to do anything,” she told her team, “let’s make sure everybody who comes in here gets quality.”

 

Familiarity and Flair

While Mexican cuisine forms the foundation of BocaSoca, CJ also embraces other global influences. New sauces, tacos, and fusion elements are being added gradually, giving customers time to explore. Recent additions include Mexican rice, corn salsa, and plans for “Soca Tacos.” Sauces are meant to appeal to global curiosity, such as cilantro-lime, a Mexican-inspired tzatziki, and upcoming flavors like jerk sauce and Asian-fusion elements.

Beverage offerings follow the same philosophy, favoring smaller brands and culturally rooted drinks, such as Mexican sodas made with real cane sugar. “We’re not focused on the major brands,” CJ says. “We’re trying to find those smaller, community-facing options.” The goal, she says, is not trend-chasing, but authenticity and inclusion, creating a menu that feels both familiar and exploratory.

 

Expanding with Purpose

As BocaSoca continues to stabilize its Hanover location, expanding is already in the works. In February, CJ is opening a second location at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon. It is a move driven by observed demand. “I noticed we serviced the Dartmouth Hitchcock community quite often,” CJ says. “And I thought, we can service them better.” CJ remains focused on listening, watching, and responding to the community’s needs, while continuing to grow at a pace that maintains quality, affordability, and culture.

Community engagement remains central to CJ’s mission. Her approach is deliberate. “It’s not that we don’t want to give burritos away,” she explains, “but we need to be more intentional about how we give to the community.” She envisions a more far-reaching community effort that will one day support broader community development, including parks, gathering spaces, housing initiatives, and other projects that bring people together and improve lives.

CJ believes that something small can grow and that ripples can become waves. To that end, she is preparing to launch the Common Ground Collective at BocaSoca. Modeled after round-up donation programs, it gives customers the opportunity to round up their purchases to the nearest dollar. All proceeds go toward community-focused causes and reflect CJ’s belief that generosity should be sustainable and intentional.

 

A Leap of Faith

She often speaks of gratitude: for John Pepper’s trust, for hardworking and supportive staff, for a welcoming community, and for the chance to build something meaningful. BocaSoca is still growing, still evolving. For now, BocaSoca stands as proof that restaurants can be more than businesses. They can be gathering places. They can be places of connection. They can be bridges. And in the hands of CJ, they can be places of purpose that uplift the community.

The new name reflects a long-held dream. In Spanish, boca means mouth. Soca is a high-energy genre of music with roots in Trinidad and Tobago that inspires dance. Will the food make you want to get up and dance? Maybe. Will your taste buds do their own tango with new and interesting flavors? Perhaps. But for now, CJ’s hope is a simple one: that the community will continue to embrace the changes and walk alongside her on the journey. And if CJ’s story and BocaSoca make you want to dance, well, that’s just a plus. 

 

 

BocaSoca Mexican Grill

35 South Main Street

Hanover, NH

(603) 643-0202

bocasoca.com