Category: NW Fresno

Casa Corona Closing the Wrong Casa Corona

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casa-corona-closing-1024x768 Casa Corona Closing the Wrong Casa Corona
Casa Corona seen clearing their burritos out already


We are flush with good Mexican restaurants in Fresno. So the closing of the Bullard & West Casa Corona is low on the loss scale. But it still sucks.

It’s a good location in a nice shopping center, good bar (although they could have done better with the beer selection), good neighborhood atmosphere and the history of it being once El Torro Tambien and still looking like it inside.

The decision to close was one of downsizing for the owners, not wanting the work of running two locations. But why keep the Cedar & Herndon and drop Bullard & West, because… no offense to Cedar but the Bullard one was kinda way better, IMO.

But whatevs, I assume the Cedar lease is cheaper and that’s the one they have had longer so, I get it.

Hopefully, another good local restaurant will get in that space and kill it.

Meanwhile, happening across the street:

https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe447e715-88f4-4078-a729-5de953887bb7_4032x3024 Casa Corona Closing the Wrong Casa Corona
This building will be having Wine Wednesdays every day, soon enough.

Related: Across the street, someone is making that odd white building into a wine bar. Yep, people will be bouncing between the Manhattan bar, the new wine bar, and Max’s across the street, it will be NW Fresno debauchery.

So watch out.

Hiking Fresno: Riverview Trail – Bluffs Loop

The Fresnan Leave a comment
san-joaquin-river-running-through-Fresno-768x1024 Hiking Fresno: Riverview Trail - Bluffs Loop

We tend to forget that one of California’s biggest rivers is running alongside our NW border in Fresno.

I have been exploring the trails (such as they are) below the bluffs and it’s pretty cool. They need a lot of work but you can access the SJ River in Fresno easy enough, if you really want it.

I went on a Fresno urban hike recently and took some video. This is part of the San Joaquin River Trail starting at the Riverview Trailhead:

I snuck me in a reward beer at the end at Eureka Burger. It’s worth going to for sure, you can go down to the SJ River or just wander around on the (I think previously private) property. Just a few walkers and people fishing is all you’ll find. This was my route:

https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8694ea68-55b0-4304-ad11-2d4d91d98d9d_1179x1966 Hiking Fresno: Riverview Trail - Bluffs Loop

(I forgot to stop the All Trails app when I drove around to Eureka Burger.)

It’s pretty funny with the elevation gains as you can clearly see when I went up and down the bluffs.

I plan to do a lot more urban hikes around Fresno once the Holidays are done, so keep an eye out.

-Mike

Memory Map: Palm & Bullard

The Fresnan 2 Comments
img_3453 Memory Map: Palm & Bullard
Palm & Bullard nerdy ‘memory map’

As I have noted in the past we have some good groups in town keeping old Fresno pictures and memories alive. I would like to add a nerdass entry with my memory maps – hand drawn maps of an area of Fresno with memories of things that once were.

Today we are at Palm & Bullard.

NW Corner

cc4e53b4-3772-4ea2-a2d0-c6798f36e178 Memory Map: Palm & Bullard
Opus 1 hasn’t changed a bunch
  • Home of the Opus 1 shopping center. It’s always been there since I have been alive.
  • Outside of a few shops changing to something else, it’s the same.
  • There used to be a cool little record shop. It was around at the tail-end of the 80s and maybe at the beginning of the 90s. Now would be a great time for it it be there again. I believe it was in the spot that the Grape Tray is in.

SW Corner

img_3459 Memory Map: Palm & Bullard
This in not the actual one but it’s damn close
  • At one time a nice little Foodland Market. Then a Walgreens. Now a yarn place of some kind. Has a neat little green space next to it where Bullard kids would go have their fights after school.
  • Foster’s is still there and thankfully hasn’t changed… like, AT ALL.
  • There once was one of the Fotomat places that looked like the one pictured above.

NE Corner

4f9756b2-03de-4201-b9db-778647a194ca Memory Map: Palm & Bullard
As it is today and stuff
  • Old Save Mart location. Still empty. Seems like it will be empty forever. My Grandmother lived in the apartments behind the shopping center and we got to bring the carts home when shopping – for some reason I thought that was cool.
  • There used to be a Sierra Nut House. Now there is a car wash.
  • Bullard Village Drugs was the jam before all the Walgreens and CVS style places took over. Good magazine section and a good Pharmacist.
  • Bullard Liquor is now nothing.
  • The dry cleaner is still there and hasn’t changed. ?
  • Mama Mia’s is thankfully still there – home of my favorite gnocchi in town.

SE Corner

d79250bf-6b43-44d7-9405-310165614fbb Memory Map: Palm & Bullard
  • 7-11 has always been there. Not a whole lot has changed. Although when I was a kid there was a little video game room where the Slurpee machince is now. I dropped many quarters into those.
  • There was a little one of those Fresno PD phones on the side of 7-11 (maybe it is still there). Ironically, the parking lot is where Bullard kids would go to find out where the “illegal” parties were at.
  • The 76 station is now one of those dinosaur gas stations.??

Feel free to share any history or stories you have about the area, in the comments.

I have another memory map post about Blackstone & Shaw too.

???

Where Is The Fig Garden Area Of Fresno?

The Fresnan 3 Comments
img_2857 Where Is The Fig Garden Area Of Fresno?
Fig Garden is where exactly?

I have been wanting to do a series of posts about the areas and districts of Fresno for probably 14 years now. It’s about time I get started.

I’ll start with my area: Fig Garden/Bullard/NW Fresno.

I live near Bullard High so I often refer to it (to those that ask) as the “Bullard Area.”

Am I in Fig Garden? Yes. Am I in NW Fresno? Yes. But within those two, I am in Bullard. Hey, Instagram recognizes it in their location option, so why not?

7648f4b6-d0a4-4c66-bc78-872467ba0c6b Where Is The Fig Garden Area Of Fresno?

But who the hell am I to say? So I put it out there to Fresno Twitter:

Obviously in NW Fresno. Maybe in Bullard. Definitely in (with Fresno Twitter’s backing) Fig Garden.

img_2867 Where Is The Fig Garden Area Of Fresno?

Me too. I never say Fig Garden either, as accurate as it may be.

Where Does Fig Garden End?

Well, to the East is easy: Blackstone. To the South: Shaw. To the North: the SJR. But where is the Western border?

Ok so things start becoming just NW Fresno at some point. But the border is?

My first thought is Marks. But I have seen some maps that have Fig Garden centered at Bullard and Valentine. So we should pick something different.

The Loop. The FIG GARDEN loop. You live East of The Loop (Fig Garden Drive to Shaw), you are Fig Garden. West? You are another thing. Then use Brawley up to Locust as a border to the North.

There we are. Fig Garden broadly defined. Maybe I will start saying I live in Fig Garden now?

I still want to work on the little districts within NW Fresno and then build out the rest of Fresno. But we have a start here.

Northeast Fresno Doesn’t Deserve The New Benaddiction

The Fresnan
cf4cd0b4-7228-4254-a237-8b91a142f528 Northeast Fresno Doesn’t Deserve The New Benaddiction
“Who Made Who” is my go-to dish at Benaddiction

Hey, I’m happy for the owners of Benaddiction, getting a new place. A nice big fresh spot. I am sure it will do well. They totally 100% deserve it! They are good folks and worked hard for this.

BUT! (you know there is a ‘but’ coming)

But, it’s kinda fucked up for those of us that live by the NW location. That have been supporting the Bullard & Marks spot all these freaking years.

Braving the long waits and postage stamp sized suite wedged next to a pool supply shop and a Supercuts training center, in hopes of one day raising the stature of the place to a full-sized NW Fresno location.

Finally it happed. Only North EAST Fresno, (the Taint District no less) got the new bigness. It feels like NW Fresno put in the work and NE got the reward.

This is how OG hardcore Green Day and Jawbreaker fans must have felt when the bands signed their first label deal.

No, I won’t be turning my back to them as they play onstage. So, I will still go to the Bullard & Marks location. And love the food.

But I might carry a chip on my shoulder when I do. Maybe mutter under-my-breath “sellouts” as I am getting seated, just to make myself feel better, I guess.

The “Who Made Who” will still taste good, just not as satisfying.