This Fresno restaurant long known for its wine has closed. ‘We tried our best’
Vino Grille & Spirits, a restaurant with a bar and wine store in northeast Fresno, has closed.
The prominent restaurant at Champlain Drive and Shepherd Avenue has been around in various forms — starting as a wine store — since 2006.
New owner Chad Hurst, who bought the business a year ago, confirmed the restaurant had shut its doors permanently.
“We tried our best and exhausted every penny I have personally,” he said.
Restaurants have battled droves of challenges in recent years, including recovering from COVID-19, labor shortages, and the rising cost of food.
“Problem No. 1 was just not having enough foot traffic,” Hurst said. “At the end of the day, it’s getting people through the door. We just couldn’t do it.”
Businesses focused on wine also face the unique challenge of high-priced inventory — the wine. Customers also like to linger over their food and wine. Though it’s part of the experience, it can make it harder for restaurants to seat new customers at that table and bring in more money.
As if to illustrate the challenges, on the day Hurst spoke to The Bee, a walk-in cooler had broken down and the air conditioning was causing a flood in a bathroom.
Vino Grille’s start
Hurst bought Vino Grille from founders Chuck and Jen Van Fleet. The pair decided to take some time for themselves and move to Arizona, according to a news release emailed at the time.
The couple originally started the business as a Vino 100 franchise, a wine store at the shopping center just south of the current spot.
They went independent and later become Vino & Friends, eventually moving to a new location in the center and adding food.
In 2017, it moved to a much bigger, newly constructed spot near GB3. The name changed to Vino Grille & Spirits to better reflect its growing food and cocktail menus.
Chuck Van Fleet, as head of the Fresno chapter of the California Restaurant Association, helped guide many in the restaurant industry through the pandemic.
Hurst has decades of experience in the food and beverage industry, on the marketing side, and worked for international food manufacturer Lyons Magnus.
He said Vino Grille had been in decline, even before COVID-19 hit.
“I felt like maybe with some new energy and leadership that we maybe could turn the tide,” he said. “We just didn’t get the momentum that we needed.”
Now he’s focusing on making sure all 30 employees get paid.
This story was originally published June 30, 2023 at 10:51 AM.
