Cutting Edge Restaurants in Fresno…an Oxymoron?

What is Fresno’s foodie trend, either by way of technique, food item, or restaurant experience? 

Cutting edge trends in dining are covered in the Bay area pretty regularly. San Francisco had an influx of artisan pizza restaurants. Then it was the gourmet burger trend, when I could order a $22 burger at a Michelin starred restaurant. Sous vide cooking was another trend. Foaming everything was another. Some of these cutting edge ideas are technical, like in the way of foam, while some are the meal itself, such as pizza. Or more recently, the restaurant experience, by way of communal dining.

Fresno restaurant staples: cutting edge?

Cutting edge in Fresno was The Chef’s Table. Communal dining, a prix fix menu, wine pairings, an open kitchen, serious cooking techniques such as sous vide, foams, and other molecular gastronomy items. The Chef’s Table failed. Why?

The Ripe Tomato is nearly the opposite of cutting edge and yet ironically is cutting edge being rooted so deeply in the French classics of complex sauces, multiple day preparations, and exotic meats all of which are rarely done on a daily basis in Fresno. After 30 years, The Ripe Tomato is still here.

Parma and Trelio have particular items that are both classic and adventurous. Fresh pasta at Parma is cutting edge considering no other restaurant makes that many pastas per day from scratch, even though pasta is a ubiquitous menu item in Fresno. I would consider Trelio’s duck proscuitto cutting edge. Nage and veloute are staples in French cuisine, but relatively unused in restaurants in Fresno, except Trelio. Perhaps nage and veloute are just “fancy words” for chefs to charge higher prices?

Max’s and Cracked Pepper are not cutting edge. Nothing on either menu recently stands out as adventurous or overly technical. Lots of classics, the occasional French word on the menu, middle of the road American food with some twists and a greater refinement than Elbow Room or Pismo’s, but generally just solid food offerings that lean American.

Local trends: pho and tacos?

Pho has been around since the dawn of time in one form or another—it’s broth with protein, starch and aromatics, a.k.a. SOUP.

Pho has gotten more attention in recent years because of the Food Network, Tony Bourdain, and Top Chef and a crazy devotion to this type of soup. There are plenty of places in Fresno to get a great bowl of pho (see the Seven Days of Pho article). But how many people in Fresno consider pho cutting edge?

 It’s been around for at least 25 years in town, considering I was eating it for lunch when I was a junior in high school. While I can’t confirm it, pho has not been on any mainstream restaurant menu in Fresno EVER, not even Dai Bai Dang. Why not? Pho is both classic and cutting edge and it’s been in Fresno for a quarter century at least!

Tacos have been around as long as people have been in Fresno I suspect, so tacos are nothing new. What I’m paying attention to is the number of taco outlets, the movement to seek out new taco trucks and talk about them, and discover them. What we haven’t seen is reaching beyond the classics of al pastor and chorizo toward the gourmet taco. How about a pork belly taco? Or a braised short rib taco? Or sous vide taco? Guess what, they’re already being served in places like Tacolicious in San Francisco and C Casa in Napa; people are lining up outside to get them at eight dollars a pop. That’s right, no one dollar tacos when the meat is 48-hour braised grass-fed short ribs.

Maybe a taco will simply be a taco in Fresno since no one will want to pay eight dollars for pork belly over carnitas. Maybe Fresno will continue to grimace in disbelief at the words “veloute” and “prime beef” in the same sentence if it costs them $15 more when all Fresno really wants is gravy and select beef. And while a $20 meal including unlabeled freezer-cold wine at a communal table at the Basque is a tradition, $90 a head with a wine pairing was a nuisance at The Chef’s Table.

Cutting edge may be cliché, but so is “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” What does Fresno want to do with its food culture—simply follow or just keep driving to the Bay Area for wood-fired pizza, duck tacos, and Pier 39 clam chowder?

Or will Fresno lead the country with its indigenous food culture of fresh produce and ethnic diversity and the food that comes with it?