Three local Fresno restaurants are expanding as others close. What are they doing right?
In an era when even longtime restaurants are closing down for good, a handful of Fresno restaurants are doing the opposite: They’re expanding.
At least three locally owned mom-and-pop eateries are opening additional locations (one is on its third) in the Fresno area.
Their menus range from southeast Asian cuisine to healthy options, along with sweet treats for people with food allergies.
All are relatively young businesses that opened in the past four years.
Their growth comes amid a flood of restaurant closures, from a popular Tower District Italian restaurant that said a scathing goodbye to Fresno to three Fosters Freeze franchises shutting down. The rising cost of food, labor, rent and power is hitting the industry hard.
The three expanding restaurants face the same challenges, but each has enough of a following that it can afford to grow.
Here’s a look at who’s opening where and what’s driving their growth.
The Bakery
The Bakery by Indulge Right Foods first opened with a pastry case full of gluten-free cinnamon rolls, cakes and breads in late 2022 at the northeast corner of Shaw and West avenues.
Owner Varouj Kachichian kept his expectations low, not knowing if the business would succeed. To his surprise, he sold out of everything in the first hour and a half — and the business has flourished ever since.
Now, he’s opening a second location. This time in Clovis.
The Bakery is gearing up to open in a former boba spot in The Trading Post shopping center at Herndon and Clovis avenues, next door to the Eureka! Clovis restaurant.
It’s almost there, aiming for a Friday, Sept. 27 opening. Keep tabs on Instagram or Facebook for its actual opening date.
The business will have the same pastries, breads and desserts, all baked in the original location and brought over daily. It will also carry crepes, waffles, soups and salads, and has a full espresso bar.
Kachichian, a pastry chef who can’t eat gluten, said the key to the business has been serving a niche of people with celiac disease or food allergies and sensitivities.
“We have a very unique business because we’re the only gluten-free facility throughout the Central Valley within about a 200- to 240-mile radius,” he said.
Customers from outside of Fresno come to the original location every few weeks to load up on gluten-free bread, pizza dough and other products — and they’re used to paying higher-than-average prices for it, he said.
The Bakery also carries products that are egg free, dairy free and keto friendly.
“We want to make it into this little safe haven for us who have food allergies and specifically gluten allergies,” Kachichian said.
LA Kitchen
This restaurant opened serving Lao and Thai food on Kings Canyon Road in southeast Fresno in 2021. It’s been busy ever since.
La Kitchen recently opened its second location, this one across town on the southwest corner of Marks and Ashlan avenues, next to India’s Oven.
The Asian restaurant serves some Chinese food, but what it really specializes in is the Lao and Thai dishes. You can get a cucumber salad done Thai style or in the stronger-flavored Lao style, for example.
There’s all kind of larb, the ground meat dish with herbs and chiles, made in your choice of beef, chicken, fish or shrimp. Also on the menu: Thai tea, pho and plenty of colorful desserts.
Basic dishes, such as sticky rice with fried chicken or fried pork belly, are also available.
The name of the restaurant is pronounced “La,” as in “tra-la-la,” and is a not a reference to Los Angeles. It’s named after the owner, La Keomanivong.
She worked at Pelco for decades, bringing egg rolls and other food to company events. Co-workers always told her she should open a restaurant and when she got laid off during the pandemic, she did. She could not be reached for comment.
Loving Seed
Loving Seed sells juices, smoothies, açai bowls, avocado toast and other healthy foods. Its newest location opened last month at Champlain Drive and Perrin Avenue, in the same shopping center as Save Mart.
The new location has some added menu items, including paninis and waffles.
The business started as a food truck in 2020 and has been growing steadily ever since.
It opened its first brick-and-mortar location inside the Fresno Elite Hand Car Wash and gas station (which many folks still know as Jack’s Car Wash) in 2022 at the southwest corner of Herndon and West avenues.
“That one is our busiest one. We’re slammed there every day,” said owner Justin Henry.
Then it opened a Kingsburg location about four months ago. At 1456 Draper St., it’s not far from the high school. Since the school doesn’t have a traditional cafeteria (just a walk-up window for food) and students can leave campus for lunch, Loving Seed attracts plenty of students as customers.
Loving Seed is also planning a location in Old Town Clovis. The owner has signed a lease to move into a spot next to Two Cities Coffee Roasters on Fourth Street. But with delays in making the bathrooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, it’s taking longer than expected, Henry said.
Like other businesses, Loving Seed is still facing all the increased costs of food and other expenses. But it developed a following from people all over the city when it started as a food truck that is keeping it going.
“We have the biggest following of any juice bar out there,” Henry said (though of course, his competitors may disagree).
He also credits hard work and the luck of being in the right place at the right time for the expansion.
For example, he was buying equipment from the Jugo Salad & Juice Bar that was closing on Champlain Drive when he ran into the property manager. Next thing you know, he’s rented the place.
“A lot of it was just situational,” he said. “All of these spaces just came to us at the same time. I was like, ‘Screw it. Why not just do it?’”
This story was originally published September 6, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
