New restaurant Just the Tip opens in triangular building downtown

A new restaurant in downtown Fresno has an odd name and an odd building.

Just the Tip debuted Monday, Feb. 1, at 1950 Divisadero St. in a triangular building at the corner of Tuolumne Street near Community Regional Medical Center.

Why the name?

Executive chef and owner Sean Dunn says: “The building looks like a brick of cheese and it has a tip, and we serve tri-tip. The tip of the proverbial iceberg is what we want to do with it.”

And yes, Dunn is well aware there is a more salacious connotation with that phrase. You can look that one up on UrbanDictionary.com if you want to know more.

The new signs, complete with artwork by Jason Esquivel, were being put up Monday. The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The sandwich and salad joint obviously has tri-tip on the menu, served with house barbecue sauce and thinly sliced onions.

Also on the menu: pulled pork, mesquite chicken made with local smoked Mary’s chicken, pastrami that’s been smoked for hours and a vegetarian option.

The sandwiches are served on rolls baked at the Basque French Bakery a few blocks away in downtown Fresno.

There’s also several types of salads featuring vegetables from Kingsburg-based KMK Farms.

“Everything is made from scratch – anything that is smoked, cured, brined, will be made in house – all the way down to the coleslaw,” says Dunn, who once was the chef at Peeve’s Public House.

The full menu is on its Facebook page.

Back to that odd building, which was until recently was occupied by Famous Family Tri-tip. You may remember when it was Big D’s Tri-tip a year or so ago.

Dunn was looking for a commercial kitchen for his catering business, Peasant Gourmet, and ended up taking over the existing restaurant.

It was built in the unusual shape because that was all the land that was available with the railroad and roads converging nearby, Dunn says.

A few months ago, The Bee’s Ask Me columnist, Paula Lloyd, wrote about the history of the building, which dates back to at least the 1920s. It has been a grocery store, an auto accessories shop, the Baghdad Express cafe and the Coffi N More coffee shop.

The owners still live in the attached house behind the restaurant.

This story was originally published February 1, 2016 at 11:35 AM with the headline "New restaurant Just the Tip opens in triangular building downtown."