To a large extent, Fresno enjoys a mostly-deserved reputation as Anytown, USA. Many things you’d find here you’d also find in most mid-sized American cities – suburbs, strip malls, easy livin’.
Fresno does have its unique qualities, however, and whenever I run into something that feels like it could only happen here, I try to take a moment to ponder, to celebrate, to appreciate. I do my best to savor the moment and add it to a small-but-growing mental rolodex of “what makes Fresno, Fresno.”
I grew up in Fresno County but have lived a lot of places. One aspect of Fresno I’ve always been struck by, especially after some time away, is our flair for ad-hoc design. You know the old joke, when a busboy drops a glass or a tray, and some joker shouts, “Just put that anywhere?”
“Just put that anywhere” feels as close to a driving philosophy as Fresno has. In a lot of places, things get torn down, redesigned, rebuilt, restored. When Fresno grows, it tends to do so horizontally. Out, rather than up; just sort of picking up and moving on when the time seems right. My great grandfather started a luggage/leather business here that lasted into the 21st century and you could sort of track Fresno’s growth by his new locations: Downtown, Manchester Mall, Blackstone, Fashion Fair (maybe one day I’ll write that essay).
When those businesses move, it’s not as if the old sites disappear. A lot of times they don’t even get much of a refresh. Oftentimes they just leave behind their shells, like crustaceans moving through their natural life cycles. People are fascinated with abandoned ghost towns, but I’m just as charmed by obvious anachronisms that have since been repurposed, a sort of DIY retro-fusion. Life finds a way…
I call these places ‘hermit crabs’, businesses that take up residence inside buildings that clearly used to be something else, without much effort expended on trying to disguise the previous incarnation. Where chains and big box stores are so often accused of moving in and homogenizing towns’ local flavor, hermit crabs are an odd phenomenon whereby we’re stealing that local character back from them.
They’re probably not many people’s idea of “beautiful,” or held up as shining examples of thriving communities, but I’d like to think that maybe they say something about Fresno’s civic character. That we’re more focused on doing than on branding, that the act of creation is more important than figuring out how to sell it. Redesign a building? Sorry, Jack! We’re too busy cooking!
Let them cook, we say.
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Lola’s Ricos Tacos
Lola’s Ricos Tacos has been living inside the shell of an old Wienerschnitzel since at least 2011. A worker said it had been there for 18 years, though a Google Street View history shows that it was vacant as of 2009, and a different Mexican restaurant called “Super Nachos” circa 2007-2008. Either way, it’s practically a historic hermit crab at this point. The signs may be peeling but the restaurant is still serving.
Al’s Cafe
Speaking of historic hermit crabs, Al’s Cafe has been operating in an old Wendy’s (complete with the original door handles) on West Olive since at least 2000. It was a Wendy’s up until at least 1992 – when Wendy’s was voted Fresno’s second best burger, behind Fatburger (sad days, those). These days they serve a mean (and extremely large) chilaquiles.
Noodle Express
One of our rare non-Mexican-food-based hermit crabs, it probably doesn’t take a genius to surmise that Noodle Express in the Tower District was, in a former life, a Kentucky Fried Chicken. The current Thai incarnation has been in business since 2019, though for a few years before that (2017-2018), it was La Arepa. For many years before that (circa 1993, it appears), it was the adorably named Tower Donuts, Chinese Food, and Hamburgers. It was operating as a Kentucky Fried Chicken from at least 1970 – 1993. Based on our research, it got robbed a lot during that time, including twice in two months in 1982, and a third time four months later. Just goes to show, things aren’t always better in their original formats.
El Premio Mayor
One of our newer hermit crabs, El Premio Mayor (Fresno’s most-decorated taco shop) took over a former Popeye’s on McKinley just last year. Oddly, they didn’t change much about the old building besides the signs and color, but it already looks more like an El Premio than it does a Popeye’s. Am I crazy for thinking Popeye’s design sensibility suits El Premio Mayor more than it does Popeye’s? The location had been a Popeye’s since at least 2008, and before that, in the late 70s and 80s, a Pioneer Chicken. The late great Kaleb Horton wrote about a road trip to the last one of those a few years ago.
Aliberto’s
If you’re thinking this Aliberto’s looks like it used to be something else, it’s not your mind playing tricks on you. It was a KFC from at least 1994 until at least 2019. It has since traded extra crispy chicken for menudo and tortas. It is still very red.
Michoacana Market
Again, if the old school sign out front and the oddly big parking lot didn’t seem like they originally belonged to a small Mexican market and taqueria, that’s because they didn’t. 508 Van Ness has a long history, going back to the 1920s, when there were apartments there. In the 1950s and 60s, It evolved into “Joe’s Chevron Station,” owned by Joe Marzullo. It had become Bob Thorpe’s Chevron Station by 1981 (Joe Marzullo and Bob Thorpe, both extremely good names for guys who own service stations). It had been converted into a Church’s Fried Chicken by 1985. By 1989, Church’s had become Super Taco, proving that Fresno turning fried chicken into tacos is a phenomenon that has been going on for nearly 30 years (at minimum).
We’re not sad about it. Michoacana Market has stood in the same place since at least 2011, though the “Super Taco” sign out front lasted until some time between 2022 and 2024.
Taco Lindo Grill #2
While Taco Lindo Grill #2 looks like it stopped being a Taco Bell about three days ago (you can even see the outline of the former bell on the top), it actually hasn’t been one since 1995. That was the year it reopened as Maria’s Taco Shop (“the best chile rellenos ever, $1.85“). It seems to have become Taco Lindo in the last year or two. Seems like a safe bet to say that the tacos are better there now.
Arsenio’s
First mention as a Taco Bell: 1987. First mention as something else: 2000, when it became “Felipito’s Mexican Food.” Since at least 2008, it has been an Arsenio’s, one of 14 locations in Fresno and Clovis. This one currently boasts 1.7 stars on Yelp.
Toledito’s
Toledito’s, on Van Ness north of downtown, raises the question: is this a true “hermit crab” or just a historical location? It has the look of a rad-icool 1950s diner (the Guy Fieri aesthetic) or something you’d see in The Brady Bunch. Ultimately my verdict is that this is a hermit crab, it just so happens to be in a shell that I’m too young to remember.
While the property dates back to the teens (the 19-teens, that is), with incarnations as the Sunbeam Floral Co. (1929) and the Green Korner Hamburger Stand (1938-1955), the current design seems to date to a building permit from 1955, shortly before it reopened as “Jan’s Family Restaurant” in July 1956.
Jan’s grand opening advertisement in The Fresno Bee noted that it was “hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Virgil Brown” (not to be confused with Emmett “Doc” Brown, from Back to the Future, the first person I think of when I hear “1955”). Jan’s lasted until 1977.
In 1978 it reopened as “Poor Richard’s,” with Mayor Dan Whitehurst performing the ribbon cutting. By 1994, it was called “The Old Relic,” (“home of the BIGGER Burger”), but had already closed and reopened as Toledo’s #2 by the following year, in 1995.
Thirty-one years later, it’s still serving Mexican food. Funny to think that a space that still screams “50s diner” on the outside has now been a Mexican restaurant for longer than it was ever a fifties diner. It’s a faded sign on a faded sign.
Only in Fresno?
We know there are more “hermit crabs” we didn’t get to. Did we miss your favorite? Email us.
