Best-read: MEGA Texas wins; Highway 41 pain; Clovis sports plan; impolite texts, Horn’s folds

Fresno Bee subscribers gravitated toward a mix of food, sports, infrastructure and legal drama in the previous week’s best-read stories among subscribers. The list includes a celebrated chef’s shuttered barbecue spot, a surprise winner in a tri-tip showdown, a major highway expansion and a heated defamation case.

Here are the best-read Fresno Bee stories among subscribers last week

• Famous chef came home to open BBQ joint. His Fresno restaurant closed within months. A celebrated Fresno-born pit master’s barbecue restaurant in Granite Park closed within months of its January opening, with a notice to vacate posted on the door and 12 unpaid wage claims filed against the location. Matt Horn’s other ventures have faced similar troubles, including an Oakland fire under investigation as arson and an Elk Grove location repossessed by its landlord.
• Major sports complex coming to north Fresno neighborhood. See the plans. A new $14.9 million athletic facility broke ground Oct. 8 at a long-fallow lot near Willow and Behymer avenues, set to serve Clovis Community College’s 11 intercollegiate sports teams. The Clovis Community College ISE Diamond L.I.F.E. Sports Complex will feature a competition soccer field, all-weather track, bleachers and press box, with occupancy planned for spring 2027.
• What did Don Arax call Keshia Thomas in a text message? It’s not polite Court documents in former Bullard High football coach Don Arax’s 2022 defamation lawsuit reveal text messages in which he used derogatory language to describe Fresno Unified Trustee Keshia Thomas after she alleged on a podcast that he used a racial slur toward her son. Thomas’ attorneys argue she spoke as a trustee with legal protections and that Arax should be treated as a public figure subject to the “actual malice” standard.
• This Fresno eatery has the best tri-tip sandwich. It’s not who you might think MEGA Texas Barbeque ran away with a Fresno Bee reader poll for best tri-tip sandwich, capturing 41% of the vote ahead of longtime favorites Dog House Grill and Mike’s Grill. The restaurant smokes its tri-tip to medium rather than grilling it and hand-slices it against the grain, serving a half pound on a garlic-buttered potato roll for $22.
• Major roadwork begins on Highway 41 in Madera County. How long will it last? Construction has begun on a $130 million project to widen Highway 41 in Madera County, spanning more than four miles between Avenue 10 1/2 and Avenue 15. Billed as the largest transportation improvement project in county history, it will create a four-lane corridor with a new southbound bridge over Avenue 11 and is expected to last until May 2028.

Original stories by Bethany Clough, Hana Tilksew, David Taub and Thaddeus Miller

This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence based on our own originally reported, written and published content. Before publishing, journalists reviewed this content in compliance with McClatchy Media’s AI policy.