Restaurant Depot brings warehouse, big reinvestment to Fresno’s downtown

Restaurant Depot opens at 7 a.m. Wednesday, bringing the company’s first restaurant supply warehouse to the Valley and a multimillion-dollar reinvestment in the industrial fringe of downtown.

The New York-based retailer sells everything from 50-pound bags of tamale flour to take-out containers, cash registers and frozen French fries.

The store isn’t open to the public, but membership is free. Restaurant owners or people who run food-service companies can get a membership. Schools, nonprofits and offices that host events or stock a break room with food or coffee can get memberships, too.

Restaurant Depot employs 40 people full time.

The company also gave a major facelift to the aging property at 1550 E. St., near Stanislaus Street, just off Highway 99.

One building was renovated and another demolished. The demolition created a larger parking area. Restaurant Depot also has an indoor parking and loading area in front of the store.

The business now houses tall racks of food and supplies that customers browse with large carts about 5 feet long.

Instead of coolers with doors, refrigerated food is stocked in a huge walk-in cooler section. Jackets are available for customers to borrow while walking through the frigid room.

Although new lofts are being built and investors are restoring buildings in the heart of downtown Fresno, not much of that has happened in the part of downtown west of the railroad tracks.

The Restaurant Depot building was once a Gottschalks distribution center. Most recently it was home to another food service-supply business, Best Cash & Carry, which moved to 2961 S. Angus Ave.

The Fresno Bee, which is next door, owned the property for more than a decade. It was used as a distribution center for newspapers. It also once housed the custom publications department, including the Neighbors insert, and a print shop that made fliers.

Restaurant Depot looked at several buildings and considered building from the ground up, said regional sales manager Stefano Tenorio. The downtown site was chosen because it is close to Highway 99.

“We have to make sure our customers can come from either direction,” he said.

Tenorio expects customers from Bakersfield to Merced.

“They’re coming to us now,” he said. “Some of them make the trek to San Jose” to visit the Restaurant Depot there.

Though most restaurants place regular orders with suppliers that deliver, such as Sysco, they often run out of certain foods or supplies and need to make an emergency trip to Costco or Smart & Final. Restaurant Depot does not deliver.

Taste Kitchen food truck owner Martin Franco said he has been driving to the Bay Area for compostable take-out containers and certain Mexican sodas he can’t find in Fresno.

“This is a main hub where food trucks can roll out and get their stuff,” he said.

An invitation-only ribbon cutting was held Tuesday afternoon.

This story was originally published September 29, 2015 at 12:18 PM with the headline "Restaurant Depot brings warehouse, big reinvestment to Fresno’s downtown."