I'm James Caples, I started working for corporate chain restaurants as a college freshman, working my way into increasingly responsible positions. In management, I realized large corporations viewed team members and guests as dollar signs coming in and out of the doors more than people living actual lives. After 7 years of restaurant management and the sudden death of my infant daughter Caylie, life’s priorities changed.

 

I realized that the amount of time I spent in restaurants that I did not own so that corporate heads on the other side of the Country could make more money for their shareholders was not how capitalism was meant to work. I realized serving food that came mostly out of premade gallon jugs and giant tin cans was building food, not making it and the idea of shipping produce from the Central Valley to Southern California so that they could ship it back was insane. The entire system I had lived my life in was crazy, and only getting crazier. Finally, I realized that I was part of the problem, and it was time to become the solution.

 

I also realized my family was more important to me than anything else.  So my Wife, Natalie, and I ran a Kickstarter.com Campaign to help fund a food truck. We met our goal with tremendous community support and  when we realized we hadn’t raised enough, we got a loan to get Benaddiction Truck on the road. The truck took off like a shot and quickly became one of the most popular food trucks in Fresno. A year and a half later, in the summer of 2014, we were offered our first opportunity at a Brick and Mortar restaurant in North West Fresno. We opened a second location in North East Fresno in November of 2021. Then our landlord of our original location refused to renew our lease, forcing the closure of that location in January of 2023.  

 

After a decade of operating Benaddiction we are loving life in our little corner of Fresno. We are small, crowded on the weekends, and a chill place to hang out during the week. All in all everything is awesome. Will we grow? Nope! I did more than one location for a year and I HATED IT! I got into this business because I can't sit at a desk and I hate dealing with back of house finances. I love my little restaurant with our garden patio and our quirky collections of mugs, team members, and regular guests and I'm not changing any of it for the world.