These 7 restaurants are closing in Fresno. But some may not be gone forever
The churn of restaurants opening and closing in Fresno continues.
While Hammy’s Smash Burgers and Toledo’s Mexican Restaurant have opened new locations, others are shutting their doors.
They range from locally owned favorites to fast-food chains serving tacos, pho, ice cream and burgers.
But it’s not all bad news. Some are closing their brick-and-mortar locations, but continue to operate as mobile businesses. And at least one is only closing temporarily.
Maria’s Tacos
For years, Maria’s Tacos operated as a taco truck at Clovis Avenue and Kings Canyon Road before moving across the street to a brick-and-mortar location in 2019.
But now the restaurant part of the business has closed its doors.
The taco truck of the same name is still operating outside the restaurant from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. The catering side of the business continues as well.
The Maria’s Tacos restaurant, which changed hands in late 2023, is being evicted from the building, according to court documents.
The previous owner and the new owner each point to alleged financial issues they say are caused by the other, and the business itself is for sale, the current owner said.
Rally’s
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The Rally’s fast-food restaurant on Olive Avenue and Highway 99 next to the gas station closed earlier in April.
The land it sits on was bought by the California Department of Transportation for part of the State Route 99 Rehabilitation Project that stretches from Clinton Avenue to south of Highway 180.
The Olive Avenue interchange will be expanded to handle more traffic, including roundabouts for the highway ramps on both sides of the street. One of the roundabouts will take over part of the restaurant’s property.
Rally’s still has four locations in Fresno and one in Clovis.
Vyxn
The north Fresno restaurant and lounge is closing May 31.
Part upscale dinner-and-brunch spot and part dance club with bottle service, Vyxn was in the shopping center at Friant and Fort Washington roads for six years.
The business will reopen in late August with a different concept, according to an Instagram post.
Details about that are still a secret, but a “mind-blowing, next-level experience” was promised by Lewis Everk (who also founded the nearby The Woodward American Grill and the former HCK Kitchen & Cocktails), the owner and president of the Everk Hospitality Group.
“This is more than a remodel. ... It’s a complete reimagination,” he said in the post. “What we’re building next will reflect where hospitality is going, not where it’s been.”
Lime N Basil/TeaZona
The upscale pho restaurant and boba tea shop at Bullard and West avenues in the Pavilion West Shopping Center is scheduled to close Monday, April 28.
The Vietnamese restaurant opened in 2021 and specialized in pho. Its menu offered all kinds of the traditional noodle soup, from the classic beef version, to veggie, chicken and kid pho.
The owners did not immediately return a message seeking comment about why it was closing.
They said in a Facebook post: “This decision was not made lightly, and it comes after careful consideration of economic and personal challenges. We want to express our heartfelt gratitude for your support and patronage over the past 5 years.”
Let’s Roll
The rolled ice cream shop on Olive Avenue named Let’s Roll has closed its storefront, but the business isn’t going anywhere. It’s returned to its early days of being solely a mobile business.
The brick-and-mortar shop closed Feb. 28.
Partners Tony Quezada and Jasmin Guzman both have jobs outside the business. He’s a real estate agent who also coaches soccer. She’s a mortgage lender.
“We were stretching ourselves too much,” he said.
The storefront faced many of the same challenges that caused other small businesses to close, including rising rent, product costs and electricity, he said.
“I feel for them because everything has gone up since we started in 2019, but it wasn’t the main reason,” he said of the closure.
They’re still taking their cart to events such as birthday parties and corporate events. The performance-like experience involves chopping sweet ingredients and cream on a freezing slab until it forms ice cream that is scraped into rolls and served in a cup with toppings.
Let’s Roll can be hired by messaging their Instagram or Facebook pages.
Popeyes
Regular Bee readers may have caught our mid-April story about the Popeye’s at First Street and McKinley Avenue closing permanently.
The restaurant had been closed temporarily for weeks before shutting the doors for good.
Neither the franchisee nor the corporation gave a reason for the closure.
The Popeye’s location had several one-star reviews on Yelp.com in recent months, with customers complaining about long wait times and recommending people go to other locations.
McDonald’s
The McDonald’s location at 5645 E. Kings Canyon Road near Clovis Avenue is also closing — but only temporarily.
The fast-food restaurant is scheduled to close for a remodel in June and reopen in August. It will redo the dining room, kitchen and restrooms, according to a permit application filed with the City of Fresno.
The restaurant already has a double drive-thru lane, but will build a new drive-thru window and a bypass lane.
The closure means 105 employees won’t be able to work their regular jobs at that location for about two months, according to a notice filed with the state as required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act. McDonald’s hopes to accommodate employees at other locations during the work.
