Work begins on new site for old Fresno eatery

Fresno city leaders joined the owners of the popular Cosmopolitan Tavern to break ground Thursday at the eatery’s future location near the Fresno Convention Center, out of the path of the state’s high-speed rail line.

Cosmo owner Gary Lanfranco and his son Joseph are moving their restaurant and watering hole from its longtime home at the corner of Fresno and G streets to a site that was formerly part of the Selland Arena parking lot at Ventura and O streets. The Fresno Street restaurant is being displaced to make way for a new underpass that will carry traffic beneath the new high-speed train tracks and the existing Union Pacific Railroad freight tracks in downtown Fresno.

Gary Lanfranco said he was anxious about possible relocation when he learned several years ago that his business was to be displaced by the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s plan. He feared that he would not be able to find another location in downtown, “and going anywhere else wasn’t an option.”

Lanfranco credited Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin and City Manager Bruce Rudd with finding a solution and selling him a chunk of the convention center parking lot. Demolition crews tore out concrete and asphalt last week, and within moments of the ceremonial shoveling of dirt, heavy equipment began preparing the site for construction that the Lanfrancos hope will be completed by February. They want to move into the new building by March 1.

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Work begins on new site for old Fresno eatery."