Overview:
This is the latest in an ongoing series called “Around Fresnoland” where we’ll profile people fueling our neighborhoods and communities with heart, grit and creativity. Know a person with an interesting backstory? Send them our way to tips@fresnoland.org.
Millions of Americans flocked to their favorite local business the moment COVID-19 pandemic-induced closures were lifted. Here in Fresno, residents came to Al’s Cafe — a breakfast and lunch diner in the city’s Jane Addams neighborhood.
But, like its patrons, the diner itself was also viewing reopening as a potential way to heal, said longtime staffer-turned-co-manager Sandy Richardson. The restaurant needed to reopen soon, as months of closures led to monetary losses that could have made them another COVID casualty business.
The timing couldn’t be worse, too, as Richardson and staff weren’t finished mourning one of their own. The restaurant’s patriarch, Al Contreras, died from complications from COVID-19 and other existing health issues in 2021.
Opening its doors to concerned customers, co-manager Richardson sought to “lighten the mood” the only way she and her staff knew how — with a smile and plate of warm, comforting food.
In turn, the diner’s fiercely loyal customers came up with their own solution to supporting the west Fresno institution during the historic public health crisis.
“Eventually,” Richardson said, “they would come out with their own trucks and their own tables and chairs and sit out in the back just because they really wanted food. They really wanted to eat here. They kept us alive. They really did.”
The pandemic is now over, but customers continue to come back to Al’s. The restaurant’s regulars make a point to show up first-thing in the morning if they want quick service (it’s not rare to see a long out the door of the diner) and, if they’re lucky to come on the same day Richardson is working, get a chance to talk and catch up.
“When people come in, they’re happy to be here and they have a good time,” Richardson said. “We laugh, we listen to music, and we tell jokes, and it’s like being in your own kitchen with everybody you know…like being in your dining room, and everybody’s in here having a good time.”
‘I stumbled upon it’
Al’s Cafe is now managed by Richardson and Anne Contreras — Al’s daughter. When Anne can’t be at the restaurant, Richardson takes the reins.
Richardson’s duties include setting a welcoming tone for those early morning patrons. That means that, at 7 in the morning on a Tuesday, you could hear an 80s throwback like Rick James’ funky R&B hit “Super Freak” out of the restaurant’s speakers.
Richardson, 58, is a New York City native. She found her way to the west coast in the 1990s after her father, a military veteran, moved and retired in Fresno. She’s been living in the city so long she feels like a lifer. As she recounts her somewhat incredulous start at Al’s in 2000, she jokes that she can’t remember what she went to school for, “but it certainly wasn’t for waitressing!”
Now synonymous with the restaurant, it’s hard to believe Richardson only started working at Al’s because, as she puts it, “I stumbled upon it.”
In 2000, Richardson was already working as a waitress at another local diner. She took her children to Al’s for breakfast on their way to school. Still wearing her work uniform, she was identified as having experience and offered a job on the spot. Al’s offered Richardson better hours for her and her children, so she eventually stopped working two jobs and focused on Al’s full time.
But now her children are well into their 30s, and Richardson still finds herself working at Al’s, running tables as a waitress just as she first did years ago. When asked why she still endures largely labor-intensive work:
“My customers,” she says. “I love my customers.”
Al’s Cafe as an institution
Al’s Cafe was started by Al Contreras – an immigrant from Guanajuato, Mexico.
Al’s Cafe has been serving west Fresno since 2000 — the same year Richardson joined. She said the location was new at the time, as Al’s had originally operated for years in downtown Fresno on G Street. Though the move was largely to get more space for its patrons, the restaurant still commonly sees lines out the door.
“It’s a good problem to have, but it’s also stressful,” Richardson said.
Like a theme park line queue, however, Al’s Cafe is littered with tiny sensory eccentricities that keep customers coming back for more — and more than comfortable dealing with the wait.
Inside, music blares from Richardson’s own speakers. She takes requests, but admits she has an affinity for music from the 1980s — with a particular love for Steve Perry and Journey. “I’d play them all day if I could,” she says.
Outside of the restaurant, first-timers are introduced to what some regulars might call, a favorite contradiction.
Al’s Cafe’s current spot was once a Wendy’s location and, while the restaurant has done a lot to create its own local brand-name recognition, much of the old tenants’ room and decor still exists today. The metal door handle at Al’s still has Wendy’s logos inscribed on it today, and the north end of the restaurant is a downstairs dining hall surrounded by curved, canopy-like windows more suggestive of the restaurants from the last century.
In fact, Sandy said that much of what customers see when they walk in is original from when the restaurant opened in 2000. Save for a few replaced windows and tiling, little has changed over the years.
Another reason regulars keep coming to Al’s is its delicious food. Sandy said the location is most known for its red-colored “Chile Verde” dishes – an inconsistency most patrons gladly overlook once their generously portioned plate hits their table and taste buds.
Richardson said the origin of some of the menu items come from Contreras’ own culture. Where Contreras grew up, tomatillos — the green vegetable that gives Chile Verde its eponymous color — are not often used in salsa recipes.
Their lunch offerings, she said, can sometimes be overlooked, but she believes they rival anything on the breakfast menu. She’s especially fond of the restaurant’s Country Fried Steak with eggs and potatoes (a favorite of this writer).
The customers don’t stop coming
What keeps patrons coming back the most however, humble as she might be, is the service provided by Richardson and her staff. The restaurant’s crew keep the dining room in a mood matching the eclectic music heard all throughout the day.
The clientele is generational at Al’s, Richardson said. Some of the patrons of the original downtown Fresno location followed them to the Olive location, and many others have joined since.
“I would see the same people every single day,” Richardson said. “You get to know them and their kids, and then their kids’ kids, you know what I mean?”
In the same way food can be seen as a unifier for different cultures, time has introduced another dimension to both Al’s and its cuisine: its ability to heal.
“I’ve been through a lot of my customers’ passings… a lot of funeral parties here…just celebrations-of-life parties here for them,” Richardson said.
Now, as time keeps passing on, Richardson wonders when it will be time to hang up her apron and stop patrolling the floors for good. Perhaps only working at Al’s in a reduced capacity.
But for now there are tables to run, coffee cups to fill, and regulars’ grandkids meet.
“I could see myself one day maybe just sitting back watching everything, making sure it’s running right, and not waiting on tables,” Richardson said. “But for now, I can’t sit in an office. I’m not office material.”
