Owners of popular Heirloom restaurant open new coffee shop/cafe in Fresno
What happens when a longtime bartender works his magic on lattes and other coffee drinks instead of cocktails? And he gets paired with a chef and owners from one of the most popular restaurants in town?
You get Otherside Cafe, a new coffee shop and restaurant in northeast Fresno.
The business opened about a month ago at Willow and Shepherd avenues at The Row at Heritage Grove, also home to Ampersand Ice Cream and Saizon restaurant.
Otherside specializes in creative coffee drinks — such as a honey saffron latte — and light meals.
It’s a project by Brandon Smittcamp, who owns The Lime Lite restaurant and is managing partner of the restaurant group that, with the help of several partners, runs other popular restaurants in town: Heirloom, Saizon, Butterfish and Mayd Modern Mediterranean.
Otherside is right on the border between Fresno and Clovis, but it was its social media presence that inspired sisters Pang and Chong Yang to drive from their neighborhood near the airport to try it out.
“It’s all over Instagram,” Pang said. “Let’s go try it out.”
The pair agreed they liked the open, airy feel of the place with lots of light and windows — and their mocha latte and iced matcha tea.
“I like the vibe,” she added.
The food on the menu here was crafted chef Justin Shannon, who also created the menu at Heirloom. It’s a bit of everything, including breakfast burritos, salads, avocado toasts, tri-tip sandwiches and grain bowls.
“Everything we do is a little bit hard to put in a box,” said Smittcamp, pointing out the chicken salad tartine on toast and a tri-tip Cobb salad with garlic sauce wrapped up in a flour tortilla.
Otherside is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with dishes ranging from $11 salads to a popular $18 miso salmon bowl.
The coffee
But it’s the coffee that’s something different for this team of restaurateurs.
“It’s a cool hybrid of two concepts,” said Adam Byrd, general manager — and one of several of the partners who went to Bullard High School together.
Byrd worked as bartender at The Lime Lite for 20 years before falling in love with coffee on a trip to Colombia. He shifted his mixologist skills to espresso-based drinks, working at Santa Cruz-based Verve Coffee for two years.
Now Otherside roasts and sells its own coffee beans, and Byrd oversees a creative drink menu — especially when it comes to the lattes.
That best-selling honey saffron latte, for example, uses a house-made syrup. Honey, saffron threads, vanilla bean paste and salt are combined and cooked via sous vide, a process in which the ingredients are vacuum sealed and slowly cooked in water at low temperatures.
Another favorite drink is blackberry latte, and the spiced ube latte, with a sprinkle of spicy red Fresno chile salt across the top. All of it served with latte art that’s worthy of framing, but destined to be sipped away.
And of course, there are the standard espresso and cappuccino (Byrd’s favorite is an oat milk cappuccino). There’s also a “1+1,” a double shot of espresso split into two tiny mugs — one straight espresso, the other a macchiato with a bit of steamed milk.
There’s a lot more on the menu for coffee purists too.
And there’s more to come. Artisan donuts are in still in the works.
Otherside has its liquor license and will someday be open late on weekends, serving desserts and craft cocktails, including coffee cocktails.
And the name Otherside? It’s got a lot of meanings, the partners say. Coffee comes from the other side of the world. The business, right on the border between Fresno and Clovis, is on the other side of town for some people. And it’s a Red Hot Chili Peppers song.
Details: 2886 E. Shepherd Ave., suite 101 Hours: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
