Places I Ate and Drank At In Fresno A Lot This Year

img_4204 Places I Ate and Drank At In Fresno A Lot This Year

Year-end lists are the most unoriginal thing in blogging. But dammit, they are popular and fun.

So here I am, listing some places I regularly went to eat and/or drink at in Fresno this year so maybe you can go there too and keep them open for me so I can continue to enjoy. Cool? Cool.

EATING

I have a goal to learn how to cook more things in 2018. Until this happens, there’s take out. Lots of take out.

TOP FIVE TAKEOUT:

  • Berrock Shop. The obvious thing to have here are the berrocks and chicken pot pies, but don’t forget the burgers and tri-tip sandwiches.
  • Jack’s Urban Eats. Yep, it was exciting when they installed taps. Yep, they have good tri-tip sandwiches too – regular AND BBcue style.
  • Formally Maria’s Taco Shop. No fuss. Just straight, fast, solid Mexican food. Plus I still have memories of it being a Taco Bell.
  • China Bistro. The SW corner of Bullard & West, tucked back behind a fountain. Good soup. Good everything. Sweet people.
  • Mama Mia’s – Palm & Bullard. All the things are good. Especially fond of the gnocchi. A little greasy but I think it’s supposed to be, yeah?

Almost making the list are Habit Burger and sadly: Chipotle. By the way, these are all places you can sit and eat, I just primarily use them for takeout. Speaking of…

TOP FIVE SITDOWN:

  • Casa Corona – Bullard & West. One of the better bar atmospheres in NW Fresno, and they finally got a decent IPA on tap (Luponic Distortion), food is not bad either.
  • Eureka Burger. This is my go-to place. Usually a good beer selection and always good food, I usually have the Fresno Burger or chicken nachos when it’s “hoppy” hour.
  • Popolo’s Pizza. I will forever miss the old location and salad bar. But the new place still gives me enough to keep coming back. I’m partial to the baked sandwiches.
  • Edo-Ya. At times, the best sushi in town and the teppanyaki is great too. We all know about EdoYa, come on, just go. L.A. Roll is amaze.
  • Pismo’s. I’m not fond of fish dishes and I still like this place. On point with atmosphere, food and service. Can’t really afford to go very much but always enjoy when I do.

Honorable Mention to Yardhouse, Benadiction (best breakfast) and to South Gate Brewing for being the best out-of-town but not THAT out-of-town place.

DRINKING!

I love craft beer so you won’t find a place here that doesn’t have it.

  • Tioga Sequoia Beer Garden. It is THE Fresno brewery hangout/event space/beer release place. Great beer and Downtown views.
  • Goldstein’s. Always a great selection of beer, nice atmosphere. Only wish I could go more when it’s not so packed and hard to order beers. (Bar pictured at top)
  • Spokeasy’s. Maybe the most genuine beer bar in town. Favorite thing is to wait for a keg to “blow” so you can see what new beer comes on while you sit there – they have a small tap system so it enables them to run through kegs rather quickly, keeping the draft list always fresh.
  • HOP PK. It’s brand new and I have only been once but this one has been so long in coming and so needed that I am including it. Looking forward to more visits in 2018.
  • Pine & Palm Brewing. It is so tiny but still fun if you are a beer geek. Good news is they are expanding very soon, excited to see what’s next.

Honorable mention to Full Circle Brewing. I wish they could magically move their building over by Tioga and Zack’s, I’d be there all the time.

So that was 2017. The number one Fresno food & drink thing I am looking forward to in 2018 is Zack’s Brewing opening their taproom on Fulton. There is a rumor it could possibly maybe open by May, fingers crossed.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my posts on The Fresnan this year!

The Best Time & Place To Watch The Last Jedi In Fresno

img_4571 The Best Time & Place To Watch The Last Jedi In Fresno

NERD ALERT! If you have not been paying attention to this blog, I am a giant nerd! A nerd about Fresno, a nerd about beer, a big nerd about Star Wars.

It would be hard for you to have missed that the Last Jedi comes out this week, Thursday evening to be exact. So it’s time for me to figure out where and when I’m going to see it.

A long time ago in a Fresno far far away, the place to see a Star Wars movie was: Festival Cinemas.

I may or may not be old enough to remember waiting in a line around the building. Now that building is a car dealership or something.

Let’s look through the options for Last Jedi viewings Thursday. Note that I am ignoring 3D showings because 3D is horseshit. Also, note that Clovis is worse than Jar Jar Binks.

Edwards Theater:

img_4575 The Best Time & Place To Watch The Last Jedi In Fresno

They have the most times, including three at 7:00, which is the earliest time you can see it in Fresno. I really like that 7:15 slot. It won’t be as packed as the initial times but you can still get into the theater before you run into people coming out of the theater yapping spoilers.

Maya Cinemas:

img_4577 The Best Time & Place To Watch The Last Jedi In Fresno

There is an 8:00 and 9:00 showing with a “cry room” available. I feel like I may cry at some point so this may be needed.

Manchester Center:

img_4579 The Best Time & Place To Watch The Last Jedi In Fresno

Wow. Not a lot of options. But I have not seen a Star Wars movie there and I know they have good sound.

Broadway Faire:

img_4578 The Best Time & Place To Watch The Last Jedi In Fresno

This used to be my go-to spot for seeing Star Wars prequel films. I think I saw all of them there, in fact.

My pick?: I choose the 7:15 at Maya. I have been going there exclusively lately, why stop now. I likely will also see it at Manchester once AND once at Broadway Faire, for old times sake. After that, only Yoda knows.

Spoiler Free Predictions!

I have managed not to hear any spoilers, outside of what the trailer tells me. I even momentarily stopped listening to all my favorite Star Wars podcasts. The exception being Star Wars Minute as they are covering Revenge Of The Sith right now – love that show.

Will we see a Force Ghost? Yes. I think we’ll see Ewan’s Obi-Wan. If we see Hayden’s Anikan, that would be insane!

Who is Rey’s parents? Han & Leia. I’m hoping for Kenobi though because I’m sure that dude got around, he didn’t have much else to do while watching Luke on Tatooine.

Lead Up To Jedi!

I warned your ass I’m a nerd. Here is the order I have been watching the Star Wars films this week. It’s not exactly the Machete Order (my favorite order to watch Star Wars), but it’s nerdy:

img_4574 The Best Time & Place To Watch The Last Jedi In Fresno

I have not read any reviews but I have seen Tweets from trusted people and they say Last Jedi does not disappoint. Maybe it will be so good it will take me back to Fresno Summers waiting in lines at Festival.

At any parsec, see you at Maya Cinemas, I guess. And May The Fresno Be With You. Always.

The Foo Fighters Pay Fresno Back For 22 Years Of Nothing [Includes Fresno Setlist]

Dave-Grohl The Foo Fighters Pay Fresno Back For 22 Years Of Nothing [Includes Fresno Setlist]

“We never fuckin’ played here before? Shut the fuck up. Shut, the fuck up. Are you fuckin’ serious? … Whoops… Sorry.” That was the moment during the Foo Fighters show at Save Mart Center Friday when Dave Grohl realized it took Foo 22 years to play Fresno.

It seemed they may have actually felt guilty because they played an extra long time and more songs than they have been playing on their current Concrete and Gold tour.

It was an amazing rock show. A clinic. This group has been playing a long time and they knew what the crowd wanted and delivered it.

The setlist came dangerously close to my dream setlist, I was shocked they played “White Limo” and really could not have been much happier. Let’s take a look at the Fresno show setlist:

  1. Run
  2. All My Life
  3. Learn To Fly
  4. The Pretender
  5. The Sky Is A Neighborhood
  6. Rope
  7. Drum solo (with Dave & Taylor jam intro)
  8. Sunday Rain
  9. My Hero
  10. One Of These Days
  11. Walk
  12. Let It Die
  13. This Is The Call
  14. White Limo
  15. Arlandria
  16. Times Like These
  17. Breakout
  18. Make It Right
  19. Under My Wheels (Alice Cooper cover sang by Chris Shiflett)
  20. Better Shape Up (Grease)/Jump (Van Halen)/Blitzkrieg Bop (The Ramones)
  21. Under Pressure (Queen cover, with Dave Grohl drumming and Tayor Hawkins/Luke Spiller [the Struts] singing)
  22. Monkey Wrench
  23. Best Of You (First closing song)
  24. Dirty Water [encore]
  25. Breakdown (Tom Petty cover/tribute) [encore]
  26. This Is The Call
  27. Everlong

Pretty sure I got that right, 26ish songs. Crazy. The show lasted 3 hours and 13 minutes. It did not feel that long at all. When the show let out I thought it was maybe 10:45, but it was Midnight.

I’m not a good enough writer to conjure up all the proper descriptions of what happened during this show. All I can say is it was fucking metal and moving, all at once. Thank you, Foo Fighters, for playing Fresno finally. And thank you, Dave, for not doing the “I don’t call it FresNO, I call it FresYES” joke hack singers use when they play here.

Speaking of Fresno, my favorite part of big shows is when the city is acknowledged by the band and a bit can be made out of it. Here is Dave talking out how the Foo Fighters have never played Fresno, complete with “sad mutherfuckers” and “Times Like These“:

I was super impressed by the stage lighting and video screen, so whoever designed that, kudos. It kept evolving throughout the night and my favorite is when it came down over the stage, creating a ‘roof’ on the stage and giving the show an intimate club feel for a few songs. Very cool.

Anyway, thanks for reading, please leave any Foo Fighter show thoughts in the comments!