Five food companies you should know. These Fresno-area businesses are growing steadily
The big movers and shakers on the Fresno food and drink scene gets plenty of attention.
Lots of people know about Valley Lahvosh’s crackers, which are for sale nationwide. Or that Bobby Salazar’s salsa is on store shelves all over the valley, for example.
But what about the little guys?
There’s a whole class of food companies — making everything from sushi to candy that goes viral on TikTok — that is steadily growing.
Often, they’re small. You can’t find them in all the big grocery stores yet.
We met several of them at the MADE Central California food trade show last week. Some showed up on a “Rising Stars” list and at a booth sponsored by Fresno Street Eats and the Clovis Culinary Center.
Others are just getting a foothold in Fresno.
So we thought we’d highlight a few small food manufacturers you’re likely to see more of in Fresno. All are growing. Some are gearing up to open brick-and-mortar locations. One has 2 million followers on TikTok with few people knowing its based right here.
Here’s a look at some up-and-comers.
Gooby Bear & Co.
This e-commerce candy company based in Fresno and Clovis has 2 million followers on TikTok and 47,000 on Instagram.
Gooby Bear takes American candy and gives a spicy Mexican twist. For example, Gushers candy is dipped in gooey chamoy or a dry chile mix. Their products are only available online, not in stores.
The pair of 20-something business partners behind the business posted a video on Tiktok a little while back. It went viral and their sales skyrocketed.
They upload videos daily of them packing orders, occasionally telling little stories about their lives. They often get hundreds of thousands of views. Sales have stayed strong ever since.
Despite their huge following, the pair never shows their faces. They declined to share their names for this story and prefer to be anonymous. They have no desire to be influencers or get recognized on the street and value their privacy and safety, they said.
Dad’s Cookies
Baking cookies for his daughters before they watched a movie together on their Friday movie nights was a tradition for Lance Sanchez. It’s now a thriving Fresno business, Dad’s Cookies.
When he was laid off from his job in audiology in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sanchez started selling his cookies. Big, fat, tall cookies that weigh 5.5 ounces each (seriously, they weigh each one) in flavors like cookies and cream, birthday cake batter and of course, chocolate chip.
Daughter Haivyn Sanchez, who has a degree in social media and marketing, is active in the company too.
Dad’s Cookies opened its first retail location last month.
It graduated from baking at the Clovis Culinary Center’s incubator to its own kitchen. It now bakes and sells out of Rare Earth Coffee, part of the Johnny Quik and Chevron station at the northwest corner of Willow and Alluvial avenues in Fresno.
At 7505 N. Willow Ave., it’s open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturdays and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.
You can also buy the cookies on the website, and at Dervo’s Deli in Fresno, and Abigail’s Candy Store and Chuck’s BBQ in Clovis.
Dad’s will continue to sell with its tent at pop-up events and special events like weddings and baby showers.
Next up? An eye-catching 12-foot food trailer is almost finished that will allow them to do even more events.
“I owe a lot of this to my daughter, she is so good at that type of stuff,” Sanchez said.
Garlish garlic spread
Garlish is a company that makes a garlic spread that can be used as a dip, sauce or instead of mayonnaise. It comes in original flavor, Dragon’s Breath (with habanero peppers), and the extra garlicky Dracula Slayer.
It recently relocated to Fresno from Sacramento.
Owners Karla and Jesse Lugo are also gearing up to open a sandwich shop in the coming months in the former Downtown Deli spot at Fresno and P streets. It will sell all kinds of sandwiches showcasing the spread.
Garlish is available in more than 70 grocery stores statewide and hoping to land on more Fresno-area shelves. For now, you can find it at The Meat Market in Clovis and The Market grocery store at Herndon and West avenues.
Miguel’s Salsa
Miguel Segura gained a reputation as “the salsa guy” when he handed out jars of his homemade salsa on his sales route.
“Everybody kept trying to buy the salsa from me,” he said.
After COVID-19 led to a layoff, he and wife Lisa Segura (formerly a district manager at a chain jewelry store) turned their hobby into a career.
They started with packaging and selling the salsa, then expanded to more Mexican food, like tamales and tacos. They specialize in the authentic flavors of Jalisco and Michoacan.
They use recipes from Miguel Segura’s mom, who grew up in Michoacan. Miguel’s Salsa operates out of the Clovis Culinary Center.
You can hire them for big catering jobs. You can also find their tent at some Fresno Street Eats events (follow their Facebook page for details).
Or, you can order a couple of tacos for delivery for lunch via their website. That’s where you can buy the salsa too.
Since this is a small operation, meal orders can only be delivered for lunch on Fridays or Sundays. The Seguras do the cooking and the delivery.
Next up? A bright blue food trailer is in the works that will allow them to do even more events. They’re also looking into how to get their products on store shelves.
Kintsugi Sushi
Khun Z. Min is a sushi chef working out of the Clovis Culinary Center.
After running two sushi counters out of Fresno grocery stores, he recently launched his own.
The sushi counter is inside the Valley Food Super Center in Kerman.
Min hopes to grow his business, providing sushi fresh daily to gas stations and other retail outlets.
