After just 8 months, a downtown Fresno restaurant has closed. Why couldn’t it make it?
Just over eight months after it opened, breakfast restaurant Country Kitchen in downtown Fresno has closed.
The restaurant opened in late January in what was formerly Joe’s Steakhouse in a prime downtown location on Van Ness Avenue.
It may not be the final chapter for the eatery that served breakfast all day. The owner of the building and the franchise said he’s in talks with several people to see if he can reopen it or lease it out.
But for now it’s closed.
Maher Manasrah bought the property last summer for $850,000 and is part of the company that owns the franchise for the Fresno location. He also owns six Country Kitchens in California, Colorado and Texas.
“The business is not doing well. We just did not realize the volume of the business,” he said of the Fresno location. “It surprised me very much.”
Along with traditional breakfast food — and the “barn buster” plate with four eggs, four slices of bacon, hash browns and pancakes or toast — the restaurant also served sandwiches, salads and burgers. It kept the cowboy country decor of its predecessor.
Manasrah, based in Southern California, does not run the Fresno location on a day-to-day basis, but said his manager told him several reasons the restaurant wasn’t making it, including issues with paying for parking downtown.
“They say downtown dies after 2, 3 o’clock,” he said.
The on-site manager declined to speak with The Bee for this story.
More restaurant closures
The news comes at a time when the city is being hit with an avalanche of restaurant closures. At least 20 have closed in the Fresno area this year.
They include at least one other downtown business, Fulton Street Coffee, which will reopen soon under new ownership and with a new name. Restaurants in north Fresno are also closing, including Starving Artist Bistro and the Blast & Brew near Palm and Herndon avenues.
Even longtime classics such as Javier’s Mexican Restaurant and the DiCicco’s Italian Restaurant at First Street and Shaw Avenue have closed recently.
Many of them have blamed the growing cost of food and supplies, rising pay rates, energy bills and sometimes real estate costs.
Country Kitchen, a franchise with locations in 11 states, made adjustments at its Fresno location. It shrunk its hours from staying open until 9 p.m. to closing at 3 p.m. It started reimbursing customers who paid for parking.
What works the best in downtown — with its 32,000 workers and 4,000 residents — are businesses that are unique, said Elliott Balch, president and CEO of the Downtown Fresno Partnership.
“A place in this location has to stand apart to draw in people who have other options,” he said. “Like our Brewery District, we have places that do that really well.”
Parking is not a barrier that can’t be overcome, as evidenced by the success of businesses in the beer district, he said.
And sometimes, closures are just part of the normal ebb and flow of the city, he said.
“The restaurant business is really hard,” he said. “We’re seeing, as always, transitions happen. ... There’s just a natural process of growth, change, that happens a lot.”
And Country Kitchen may yet reopen in some form. Manasrah said he may keep the same concept and name, or change it. He may lease it out to someone else.
“Hopefully, that will work,” he said. “It wasn’t what we expected, to be honest.”
This story was originally published October 9, 2024 at 8:03 AM.
