👋 Did this email get forwarded to you? Sign up here to get the Fresnoland Food newsletter each Friday.
Lists! Rankings! Numbers!
Everyone reads them, even if we say we hate them (I’ve spent the last almost 20 years writing things on the internet, I know this, I’ve seen the numbers). Lists, real ones, in which someone genuinely sweated over each placement – as opposed to lazily sorted Yelp ratings or reader polls — was something I knew I wanted to bring to FAT City/Fresnoland Food.
Nothing gets people talking, sharing, arguing the individual merits of particular things – quite like a list.
And that’s what it’s all about, right? Sharing the knowledge of good things that are out there, connecting with each other and our environment, and hopefully creating community in the process. More brains better!
That being said, in the course of trying to put together this week’s list of Fresno-area breweries (“An IPA-hater’s guide to Fresno-area breweries”), I also came to understand why people don’t write these lists very often: they’re hard. One has to be comprehensive, but also fair, and that’s before you even get into quantifying intangibles.
My paradoxical position on this is that comprehensive ranked lists are basically impossible, and that you also have to try anyway or else you are essentially a coward. Striving after an ideal you can never achieve, that’s life. It’s the attempt that counts. Ideally you learn things in the course of the journey.
For instance: I started with the premise of ranking breweries by their beer— i.e., the main product that breweries produce — which seems straightforward enough. But it also brought me to a few revelations: Like that I’d rather drink bad beer in a place I love than great beer in an uncomfortable one.
I think most people would agree with that. I also believe that having one 10/10 beer is better than having five 6/10 ones. Maybe that take is more controversial, but for me at least, it holds true too for restaurants, and plenty of other things. Having choices is great, but making decisions is hard. The more I have to make, the more anxious I get. Thus, any place where I can have an automatic go-to order (one less decision!) puts me that much more at east.
Anyway, this all raises another, more existential question: Is beer actually the main product that breweries produce? Or is it something else? Something more… intangible. Discuss.
— Vince Mancini, Contributing Editor, Food
This week’s local food news
Horn BBQ is being investigated for wage theft. Following up last week’s news that acclaimed, Fresno-bred pitmaster Matt Horn had closed his Fresno location, the Fresno City Attorney is now investigated claims of wage theft. The news has made it all the way up to the Bay Area, where Horn’s restaurant empire began. [SFGate]
Cracked Pepper is opening in City Hall. We may not have the downtown food hall at GrubPub (sad face), but we still have City Hall, and now the beloved Cracked Pepper Bistro has announced a City Hall location. “The new concept will serve up breakfast, lunch and coffee options, in addition to its beloved bread pudding,” says the report. It doesn’t sound like a full menu, but it’s something. The lease is for three years. [Business Journal]
Trelio in Old Town Clovis is celebrating 20 years in business, as the owner steps back. Founder Chris Shackelford is no longer running day-to-day operations, though he still owns 51% of the business. The “four core staff members” who own the other 49% are in charge in his place. [Fresno Bee]
The new Chick Fil A in Clovis is set to open July 1. It’s on Shaw and Helm, next to the Walmart Supercenter. I’ve never really understood the appeal, myself. It’s above-average airplane food. [ABC30]
— Vince Mancini, Contributing Editor, Food
Support independent food journalism
We’re not influencers, we’re journalists. Support local food journalism that lifts up our city, our culture, and the Central Valley.
