Break-ins, arson almost closed this Blackstone restaurant. It moved to Clovis instead
It’s one heck of a glow up.
For 15 years, breakfast restaurant Jeb’s Blueberry Hill was on Blackstone Avenue, north of Dakota Avenue. It faced multiple break-ins, arson fires and prostitution issues in an area that “was getting worse by the day,” said Armando Martinez, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Ruby Martinez.
They decided to either shut down the restaurant or find a new location for it.
They found a new home somewhere completely different: in a historic hotel in Old Town Clovis.
Jeb’s moved late last year to the northwest corner of Pollasky Avenue and Fourth Street, settling in to the building built in 1902 with vintage wallpaper, heavy pink drapery and an old-timey vibe.
“The decor inside, it is so, so beautiful; it’s so antique,” Martinez said. “When you walk in the restaurant, it takes you back to the early days of the 1900s.”
The building is the old Hoblitt Hotel. It was a high-class hotel, the only one in town with indoor plumbing on every floor. It once had three stories, but a frying pan left on a wood-fueled stove started a fire that destroyed the third floor in 1927, according to Fresno Bee archives.
Over the years, it had different uses, including as the Sierra Vista Hospital decades ago, and the Victoria Rose Cottage tea room in recent years.
The history is something people connect to, including the older couple who came by recently to check out the restaurant. They were both born in the building when it was a hospital, they told Martinez.
“I feel honored to be here,” he said. “I know for sure we have to take full advantage of the history of the building.”
Today, the restaurant operates on the first floor, with offices, including an engineering firm, on the second floor.
Until recently, the first floor was occupied by 559 Beer and its taproom serving food.
As for Jeb’s, the breakfast and lunch spot is serving down-home American breakfast and lunch food. Its top sellers are its eggs Benedicts. A waffle combo is another popular option — half a waffle served with fruit topping (blueberry, cinnamon apple, peanut butter and banana, etc.) with two eggs, sausage and potatoes.
One aspect of the business that’s new with the move? Cousin Mel.
Melvin Mason — who everyone calls Cousin Mel — is a Clovis regular and musician recently honored by the Clovis Hall of Fame.
Though he technically lives in Fresno, he stores his guitars at various businesses around town (including On the Edge coffee shop, the Tollhouse Market and now Jeb’s) and pops in to play them for customers. He serenades them with a quick verse (“I make sure I don’t annoy people” he says) of a song from Johnny Cash, Buck Owens or Hank Williams.
“I’m 79 years old, I haven’t got anything else to do,” he joked.
Mason said he thinks the breakfast restaurant is a perfect fit for such an old building.
“That’s what that building should be,” he said. “I would say it fits like a glove. I think what they’re doing is absolutely perfect.”
Jeb’s Blueberry Hill
This Jeb’s has been around for 15 years. It’s one of H.T. “Chic” Brooks restaurants, along with Country Waffles, Perko’s Cafe, Brooks Ranch and Happy Steak.
Brooks, of Easton, died back in 2023, but not before putting his stamp on the Fresno restaurant scene — and the entire Central Valley.
Martinez first met Brooks when he was hired to tend Brooks’ racing pigeons on his ranch. About a year in, Brooks asked Martinez if he wanted to wash dishes for him at one of his restaurants. Martinez ended up working his way up, mostly at Country Waffles.
“Fifteen years in, he said, ‘You know what, I think you might be ready to have your own restaurant,’ and I was like, ‘What? How?’”
He couldn’t afford to buy a restaurant, but they worked something out, and Martinez ended up becoming owner of Jeb’s Blueberry Hill on Blackstone.
Most people seem to like the food on Yelp.com reviews.
Despite a dated interior at the old location — “like stepping into the 1980s,” said one reviewer — it gets a 3.8 out of 5 stars rating on Yelp.com.
Said reviewer Jose R. of Visalia: “Great selection of food; breakfast and lunch options, literally something for everyone. We decided to keep it basic this time around and tried their breakfast items; wow this place is one those sweat pants are made for, very filling and generous portions.”
From Blackstone to Old Town
But over the years, the neighborhood started to become a problem, Martinez said.
“It’s a really bad area for prostitution, drug activity, and even sex trafficking,” he said. “So it got to the point where it was where like everything was being done out in the open. Our clientele got to see that, and we started losing clientele because of that.”
Several break-ins and two fires started by arson later, they decided they needed a change.
The Old Town location worked out. Now, they focus on their food instead of their surroundings, said Ruby Martinez.
“It just went from being stress on Blackstone to being more of a relaxed environment,” she said. “The community is very welcoming on Pollasky. It’s more of a personal experience.”
Details: Jeb’s Blueberry Hill is at 356 Pollasky Ave., Hours: 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. 559-224-3700.
This story was originally published January 23, 2025 at 9:42 AM.
