This national restaurant is returning to Fresno. Check out its ties to a local burger spot
Fatburger is gearing up to open its only restaurant in Fresno.
Normally, this would be a story about a Southern California chain opening its first restaurant in Fresno – except it’s not the first. Fatburger was in Fresno in the 1990s before transitioning into a familiar locally owned restaurant, Colorado Grill.
More on that in a moment.
First, Fatburger plans to open its new restaurant on Clovis Avenue and Kings Canyon Road, between the Starbucks and Mariscos Colima. It’s taking over the former BurgerIM spot that closed this year.
Fatburger is known for its multiple sizes of burgers, ranging from its one-sixth pound “baby fat” burger to its 1.5-pound “triple king” burger. It offers turkey burgers, skinny burgers with no bun and the meatless Boca and Impossible burgers.
Fat and skinny fries and milkshakes are on the menu, too.
Fatburger has 76 locations nationwide and restaurants in more than a dozen countries.
Trivia tidbit: Lovie Yancey started the business in 1947 as Mr. Fatburger. She used scrap materials from her partner, who worked in construction, to build the three-stool hamburger stand in Los Angeles. When Yancey parted ways with the man, she dropped the Mr. from the hamburger stand name.
The Fresno Fatburger is expected to open in early 2020, according to the company, though it hasn’t set a specific date.
The restaurant will be co-branded with Buffalo’s World Famous Wings, selling both burgers and chicken wings from the same spot. It sells bone-in and boneless wings in more than dozen flavors, ranging from “scorchin’” to sweet bourbon bbq.
Colorado Grill connection
So what does this have to do with locally-owned Colorado Grill in Fresno?
The Fatburger that was here was at what is now Colorado Grill on Herndon Avenue, just east of Blackstone Avenue.
Ali Nekumanesh was the franchisee of the Fatburger there from 1995 to 1998, though Fatburger was open before that.
He had worked for Fatburger in various positions and in the quick-service restaurant industry for years before then.
In 1998, he decided to cut ties with Fatburger and make the restaurant his own under the name Colorado Grill. It is also known for its gourmet burgers.
Nekumanesh wasn’t unhappy with Fatburger, he said. “It wasn’t necessarily that I didn’t want to be a franchise of Fatburger. It was more a consideration of my career at that time. I need to see what I can do on my time.”
It seems to have worked out. Colorado Grill now has three locations in Fresno and Clovis, and recently launched a food truck.
Nekumanesh is also an executive vice president at Deli Delicious, another popular Fresno-based sandwich shop that he is involved in growing through franchises.
He doesn’t consider Fatburger competition to Colorado Grill.
“Colorado Grill is a locally-owned and operated place and I think it appeals to the local customer base,” he said. “It’s remained successful in light of all the other competitors coming to town. We had a Wendy’s open up next door. We had an In-N-Out Burger open up down the street and it didn’t impact our transactions at all.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
