These restaurants and bars closed quietly at the end of 2024 in Fresno and Clovis
While most of us were busy celebrating the holidays, many business owners were tasked with something much more bleak: Shutting down their businesses for good.
Struggling restaurants and bars often try to hang on until the end of the year.
Some made headlines when they closed in recent weeks, including the struggling DiCicco’s at First Street and Shaw Avenue and Casa Corona’s Fresno location closing because its owners wanted to travel more.
But in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, there are some restaurants we may not have gotten a chance to say goodbye to.
Here’s a look at some restaurants and a bar that won’t be returning in 2025.
Yosemite Falls Cafe at Granite Park
The mountain-themed Yosemite Falls Cafe restaurant near Cedar and Dakota avenues announced on social media on New Year’s Day that it has closed for good after 14 years.
Its locations at Shaw and Blackstone avenues and on Shaw in Clovis are still open (the Ashlan Avenue and Highway 99 restaurant closed back in 2022).
The owner was not immediately available for comment. In the past, Manny Perales has complained about the cost of doing business in California, especially the restaurants’ power bills.
He told The Fresno Bee earlier this year that one energy bill last summer was $21,300.
The 6,489-square-foot Yosemite Falls Cafe building on Cedar and its liquor license are for sale for $2.5 million.
Workers will be given the chance to interview at the other Yosemite Falls locations, the Facebook post said.
Sandwich Works
After 42 years, Sandwich Works, the little yellow restaurant at Ashlan Avenue and Fresno Street, has closed.
“It is with great sadness and dismay that we are being forced to close,” a sign posted at the restaurant said. “We have new landlords who have doubled our rent ... non-negotiable!!!”
It closed on Dec. 24. The owner declined to be interviewed by The Bee.
The restaurant has been in the same spot since it started, back when Ashlan Avenue was considered the north part of town. The husband-and-wife-run eatery served breakfast and lunch in a home-style dining room decorated with an aviation theme.
Saint J wine bar
The wine bar in the Peerless building in downtown Fresno closed in late December. Saint J got new owners in 2023, but said in an Instagram post that its last day was in late December.
The post said “health and family circumstances in the lives of our leadership have dictated that we must move on with the sale of Saint J Wine.”
The owners also run the Hook & Ladder Lounge in Clovis, which is going strong, they say.
But fans of Saint J likely haven’t seen the last of the cozy little wine bar. Manager Andrew Ueland said the owners are talking with several groups interested in buying the business. He said he expects it won’t be closed for long.
The Mug at the Peacock Artisan Eatery
The locally owned coffee shop has closed its second location that it opened back in September inside the Peacock Market (along with a second location of The Pickled Deli).
The Mug’s original Fresno location at Champlain Drive and Perrin Avenue is still open.
An Instagram post signed by owners Crystal and Michael Edgar thanked customers for their love and support. It continued, “With heavy hearts, we are leaving our Clovis location. Unforeseen family medical issues have made expansion unsustainable at this time.”
Daddy Waffles
The breakfast restaurant at Herndon and Marks avenues is officially closed.
Though some customers had held out hope Daddy Waffles would bounce back, a sign on the door from the shopping center management said the restaurant has “permanently closed its doors.”
Daddy Waffles opened in 2022 by same owner of the Waffle Shop on Figarden Drive (which is now The Waffle Place with different owners). Daddy Waffles owner Ammar Ibrahim was not available for comment about why the restaurant closed.
The spot already has a new restaurant in the process of taking over the space, though the center’s management was not available for comment about the future tenant.
Yass Fish Tacos
Yass Fish Tacos started as a food truck, then opened its brick-and-mortar restaurant last summer at Marks and Ashlan avenues.
It sold fish tacos and other fish dishes — along with Korean corn dogs — but closed in mid-December.
The owners were not immediately available for comment.
