Palermo Italian Cuisine
Center for Rural Affairs When Ernesto Estrada Marquez came to the U.S. in 2001, he didn’t plan on eventually owning a restaurant. But he took jobs in the food industry after arriving in Chicago, and he discovered he enjoyed it immensely. Ernesto has worked off and on in the restaurant industry for the past two decades, and now he and his brother Alejandro own Palermo Italian Cuisine & Bar, in Jackson, Nebraska. A true family-run business, they operate the restaurant with their wives, Jessica Marquez Velazquez and Dayana Cross Magana. “My brother was living here in Nebraska before me, and his wife’s family had been living here as well,” said Ernesto. “So, after talking about and planning to open a restaurant, he thought we should do it in Nebraska. I moved, and we got to work.” Their first step was finding a location. By a lucky coincidence, a friend who…