What’s a ‘cheese lounge’? This new breakfast and lunch spot in downtown Fresno has one
A Fresno charcuterie business has opened a cafe in downtown Fresno, serving its own twist on breakfast and lunch.
Fig & Honey is on the ground floor of the T.W. Patterson building at Fulton and Tulare streets in space once occupied by Casa de Tamales.
But this is not your typical cafe.
It’s the evolution of a 3-year-old charcuterie business, Fig & Honey Lavish Grazing (they’re dropping the last two words for the new location). Owners Allison Cassabon and Kellie Lopez started their business in 2018 after meeting while working at Whole Foods.
Charcuterie is a French concept for a collection of meats, although in the U.S. it has come to mean boards displaying a variety of meat, cheese, fruit, nuts and here, edible flowers. Cassabon and Lopez create these boards, along with giant, lavish table displays for events like weddings, out of their new location.
But they also decided to open it up to the public.
You can get coffee, tea and pastries by Fowler-based Belladonna Baking Co., like croissants, plum Danishes, and brownies with smoked fleur de sel (a type of sea salt).
You can also get sandwiches, salads and grab-and-go charcuterie.
For example, you can get a $12 pre-made box with olives, salami, dried apricots, cheese and nuts.
You can also walk in and buy a build-your-own-cheese board. For $12 or $24, depending on size, you can pick three cheeses, a meat (like proscuitto or herbed salami) and three accompaniments like olives, nuts or seasonal fruit from a menu.
There’s also a market feel to the business, with items ideal to grab on the way to a picnic, like crackers and wedges of brie cheese.
You can eat the food there or take it to go. There are tables and chairs out front on the sidewalk, and a back seating section they’re calling the “cheese lounge.”
It’s a collection of retro sofas and wicker chairs – including a giant two-seater ideal for Instagram photos – and a record player where you can enjoy your cheese and other food and drinks.
A mural and art on the windows and around the business is by local artist Elowyn Dickerson, who many Fresnans know as Art by Elowyn on Instagram. She’s also working at Fig & Honey.
“It’s like a hopped-up Starbucks in a way,” Cassabon said. We have coffee and tea, but we have grab-and-go items. You can sit and hang out too.”
What about the wine bar?
Regular Bee readers may remember that Fig & Honey won the Create Here competition by the Downtown Fresno Partnership back in January. Their winning business plan called for a wine bar and market.
That’s still happening.
Cassabon and Lopez are also renting the space next door with the black-and-white checkered floor that many remember as Saigon Deli. That space will become a cheese and wine bar, probably at the end of this year or early next year.
When that happens, the space they’re in now will become the Wildflower Market.
But they didn’t want to wait until the wine bar was ready to open to the public, hence the current version of Fig & Honey.
“It’s a work in progress,” Cassabon said.
The pair is excited to be part of change downtown and will be open for monthly Art Hop events. They also hope to draw some of their current north Fresno customers to downtown.
The menu will soon be available for delivery on DoorDash and Fresno-based Ordrslip.
They will continue to cater and take large orders via their website, www.figandhoneygrazing.com.
Fig & Honey’s regular hours are from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays (though it will be closed temporarily on Friday and Saturday, July 23 and 24).
Details: 938 Fulton St. Customer service line: 559-478-0969.
This story was originally published July 22, 2021 at 12:29 PM.
