There can be only one salsa that is the BEST salsa at Quesadilla Gorilla and that is the one on the right: Cilantro Cream.
You can go at me in the comments all you want if you disagree, but you will be wrong.
Fresno is king of Drive-Thrus. We are also the test market for many things fast food – we approved Doritos Locos Tacos (you’re welcome? world).
So why the HELL aren’t we getting this new Taco Bell drive-thru concept first!?
The innovative restaurant reimagines the traditional drive-thru experience with four lanes, three of which are dedicated to mobile or delivery order pickups, providing fast, skip-the-line service for customers who order via the Taco Bell app and third-party delivery services. These three lanes will supplement one traditional lane, easing the flow of traffic and ensuring a speedy experience.
-Somebody at Taco Bell
I guess some town in Minnesota is getting this first.
Really, all our drive-thrus should be this concept or we should trash them and not have any.
Yes. Yes it’s fucking closed. Dammit. That sucks.
Not closed in a “We’ll be back when this is over” kind of way. Nope. It’s gone.
It kinda makes sense. Before everything went South, they weren’t all that busy. A Friday night was about the only time it was kinda lively.
Then the Pandemic hits and that’s that.
I will miss this place. Really solid sushi. End of a Fresno sushi era. Good luck to everyone that worked there.
I don’t know that we do.
Let’s just pull Save Marts off the board. Don’t get me wrong; they are workhorses. I’m thankful for them. It’s where I do the bulk of my shopping. But I am not aware that any of them are “great” stores.
Yes, you can drop the Wincos and Pack-n-Save and anything with “bargin” or “outlet” or “dollar” in the title. They are trash, but can serve a purpose for a neighborhood so I will at least give them props for being in areas where nobody will go.
And no, Costco is not an everyday grocery store. It’s a nightmare.
Vons? Well, I do like Vons and as a former employee, I am partial to them. But fuck them since they completely left the western side of Fresno. (I miss the Blackstone, First & Tulare and Marks & Shaw Vons greatly)
Every city seems to have a Whole Foods, a Trader Joe’s and a Sprouts. I am not going to count those since they are out-of-the-region chains. I haven’t even been to the new Trader Joe’s (wrong side of 41 for me now, bro). Drop them.
We are whittling it down here now.
The Tower Market? No. It serves the neighborhood, props for that, but nah.
The Vallarta on Clinton & 99? Maybe. I have not been in there, I am embarrassed to say. So I cannot accurately give it a call either way. For the sake of finishing this post and using firsthand feedback, I am going to say that it is good but not great.
Unless I am missing something, we are left with The Market at Herndon & West. Is The Market a GREAT grocery store? …
[rubs forehead and thinks]
It’s… you know, it’s… well it’s GOOD. Good but not great. So I guess Fresno does not have a great grocery store. Case closed.
Hit me up on Twitter if you feel otherwise.
Inspiration for this post:
I had not sat down inside or outside a Fresno business for nine months. Until…
Yep. I broke down and went to the new (still improving) beer garden setup at Zack’s Brewing in Downtown Fresno.
I had a couple beers along with some tri-tip.
It’s looking good, the beer is still awesome, food was great and it all felt weird.
I sat outside and away from everyone. Wore a mask except to drink and eat. I felt safe enough.
But I didn’t have to go. I could have stayed home. This is what I have done this whole Pandemic: Getting takeout & delivery. No inside or even parking lot seating, for me.
But I broke, had some beers and got some flack for it on Facebook with a reminder of how things are going out there:
I can’t say disagree with the flack. But I wanted to support a friend’s business and have a Birthday Beer.
Zack’s and Tioga are making things as safe as possible and I was thirsty for an hour of normalcy.
We have all made our Corona choices somewhere. A tasty beverage on a nice Sunday afternoon broke me.
Now I gotta re-focus, a long Winter lies ahead.
I just came back from Fig Garden Village and there are a ton of freaking Fresnans out there!
Wassaaaabi’s? Packed. The patio was full and there were, like, eight people waiting for a table. THIS IS AT 2:45 on a Saturday!
Whole Foods? Packed. Long line to get in and very busy in the store. Like, so busy they might as well have not had a line to get in. It was near impossible to distance from people in there and I don’t think the line outside would have made it much worse. Fuck it, let all in.
I had not been inside Whole Foods since March and I was surprised to find it just as busy (if not more so) than Save Mart. At least Save Mart has more space to keep away from yahoos.
Jack’s Urban Eats? Busy too. wasn’t completely packed but busy and junk. Again, this is 2:45 in the afternoon.
To top it all off, it is smokey as hell. It wasn’t so bad in the morning, but the winds shifted or something and things got nasty.
BUT YOU ALL JUST PACKED OUT THE PARKING LOT PATIO AT OUT OF THE BARREL LIKE NOT A DAMN THING IS GOING ON!
Dude. All the tables at Out Of The Barrel were full. Mostly full of people that are not in a “bubble” together. You could not have fit more people out there. Since everyone is drinking, no masks.
I suppose that’s cool when it’s a handful of people, but this was too much for me brain to bare.
I was going to pick up some beer there but decided to skip it after seeing that.
Maybe a little part of me has respect for people saying, “Fuck it. I don’t care if it’s a Pandemic. I don’t care that the air is shit. I’m going to live my life and if I die, I die!”
But the rest of me? People. Is eating and drinking in a parking lot or smokey patio really all that?
We are never going to get out of this, are we?
Just go home, Fresno.