ABOVE: Former Bean Town owners, Steve and Tina Jette, and the Fairmont-based restaurant’s new owners, the Parra family, Miriam, Karen, Kimberly and William.

FAIRMONT– Bean Town in Fairmont is about to undergo a change in ownership. As of this coming Monday, the restaurant will be owned and operated by the Parra family.

Steve and Tina Jette opened Bean Town, along with Paul and Deb Baldus, in February of 2012. Steve and Paul had worked at Interlaken and left in order to open their own restaurant. The Jettes had been the sole owners since 2016.

In June of 2022, the Jettes put the restaurant up for sale as they wanted to spend more time with family and pursue other hobbies and endeavors. Ideally, they wanted the restaurant to go to someone who would operate it as it has for over a decade.

Just as Steve had a dream of opening and running his own restaurant, so too, did William Parra.

The Parra family, while originally from Ecuador, has been living in Burnsville for about 22 years. There William and his wife, Miriam, worked at Endzone Bar and Grill. They shared how they found out about Bean Town in Fairmont.

“My husband found it. He was looking around for restaurants,” Miriam said.

“He wanted one of his own. He’s been in the restaurant industry for over 20 years,” added daughter Karen.

Upon finding Bean Town, the Parras began doing some research on the city of Fairmont and in March, they traveled down to meet the Jettes and see the restaurant.

“I remember it was during a blizzard,” Tina said with a laugh.

“It was really snowy that day so we couldn’t look around a lot. But when we came back we got a chance to look around town and we fell in love with it,” Karen said.

In May when the Parras visited again–before they even put an offer in– they pitched in with preparing the landscaping and planting the flowers on Bean Town’s patio

“Before they even knew they were for sure buying it… they wanted to learn,” Tina said.

William was ecstatic about finding Bean Town, calling it “perfect.”

“We love how this restaurant runs. The menus, the people working here. We feel like it runs really well and don’t plan to change anything. If anything we would add something to the menu,” said Karen.

William and Miriam agreed that further down the line they’d like to offer breakfast and noted that they have experience in cooking breakfast food.

“I’d love to do breakfast,” said Miriam.

They plan to operate with the same hours and the staff at Bean Town is also staying on, which the Parras are grateful for.

William has been working with Steve for the last month, training in the kitchen and learning the menu items. He said the food isn’t very similar to what he was cooking at the last restaurant he worked at, but more fresh and made from scratch, which he likes.

“It’s more unique here. Very fresh food,” said Miriam.

“It’s something different, I’m learning something better than what I was doing,” said William.

He’ll run the kitchen and Miriam also plans to work in the kitchen, as well as do some of the behind-the-scenes work.

The Parras will operate Bean Town as a family restaurant, just as the Jettes did. The family moved to Fairmont just last week. Daughters Karen and Kimberly will work at the restaurant between school. Karen’s a college student and Kimberly in high school. Steve and Tina’s three daughters also all worked at Bean Town.

“Our hope was to have someone like these guys come in who were eager to have a restaurant,” Steve said.

Tina said they had a few inquires when the restaurant was for sale and that they were contacted by a handful of people interested in changing Bean Town into a Mexican restaurant.

“I was honest with them and said we already had two,” Tina said.

It’s safe to say that both the Jettes and the Parras found what they were looking for. Tina said she and Steve have loved Bean Town and wish the Parras luck in operating it successfully.

The Parras are happy to be taking this next step in their life. They’re looking forward to not only learning more about the restaurant, but the community, and doing it together.

“We’re excited to work together as a family,” Karen said.