Will these Fresno restaurants ever reopen? Closed since COVID, here’s what they say
Dark windows and closed signs on restaurant doors in Fresno have been a common sight in recent months.
Some restaurants closed for good.
Others closed temporarily. With the whiplash of closings, reopenings and increased cleaning expenses, some restaurateurs said they couldn’t bring in enough money to justify staying open.
Most intended to reopen, but now that we’ve been dealing with the coronavirus for more than a year, will they really? Or did the lack of money coming in mean the restaurants decided to call it quits? Did their leases expire in the time they were closed?
Here’s a look at the future of some Fresno-area restaurants that closed temporarily.
India’s Oven in the Tower District is in a prime spot on Olive Avenue in the former Million Elephant space. Some Tower folks have been wondering if this restaurant will ever reopen.
The answer: Yes, said owner Sunny Sehgal.
The restaurant closed in July, after reopening for indoor dining in June.
“It was hard to open up and close down. We lost more money opening and then closing,” he said. “We can’t wait to get back into Tower.”
The restaurant’s original location at Ashlan and Marks avenues has been open all this time. It and Sehgal’s other businesses continue to support the Tower location by paying rent, a power bill and the water bill.
He’s shooting for a mid June opening.
But there’s a lot that goes into reopening that could delay things. After being closed for so long, they’ll have to hire mostly all new staff who need to be trained.
They will also hire a professional cleaning crew to sanitize the stove hood and the rest of the restaurant, he said. And they’ll have to take inventory of all their food, throw out expired ingredient mixes, order new food and get the beer taps back online.
Toledo’s Mexican Restaurant at Shaw Avenue and Fresno Street will not reopen.
The family behind the longtime locally owned restaurant is focusing on its other two locations and the new one it’s gearing up to open in northeast Fresno. Keep reading for an update on that spot.
When the restaurant shutdowns first happened in 2020, the family scrambled to pay vendors and employees, and worked with a skeleton crew doing takeout at one location, said Jesse Toledo. It took money to reopen each location, which the family had to come up with before their federal Paycheck Protection Program loans kicked in.
The location in the Mission Village shopping center on Shaw near Highway 41 only had a few months left on its lease. So the family decided not to renew it.
They moved out before the end of 2020. Since then, a fire broke out in the space. It’s currently being gutted and refurbished.
The Toledo’s on Shaw Avenue in Clovis and the location at Milburn and Herndon avenues in Fresno are back open for indoor dining.
And work continues on the newest location, which is replacing the one with the enclosed patio that closed on North Blackstone Avenue more than a year ago.
The new one will be in a building that’s being remodeled on Cedar Avenue, north of Nees Avenue. Between COVID-19 and the difficulties of remodeling a former office space into a restaurant, it’s taking longer than expected, Toledo said.
But they are planning a temporary, mini Toledo’s in the same shopping center. They are taking over a former Chinese restaurant, just north of Raw Earth Juicery.
It will serve takeout food and seat people inside, though it’s only about a third of the size of the one they plan to open eventually.
The mini Toledo’s is expected to open in about two months.
Five Guys at Campus Pointe next to the movie theater has been closed for months.
A company representative responded to The Bee’s inquiries via email: “Unfortunately, we do not have firm details on an estimated date of reopening.”
When asked if the location would definitely reopen, the representative did not respond.
Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery opened in summer of 2019 and was less than a year old when COVID-19 hit.
The bar and restaurant known for its servers’ skimpy outfits and lots of cheesy appetizers was attached to the Ramada Fresno on Shaw Avenue near Highway 41.
Its windows have been dark for months, but plans call for reopening it eventually, according to Kirit Patel, a supervisor at the hotel.
Just when isn’t clear yet. He said they are waiting on approval from the health department and will need to hire new staff. They also want to wait until state regulations allow more customers to dine inside, he said.
This story was originally published May 13, 2021 at 11:17 AM.
