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Downtown Fresno Welcomes New Frida Café

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Natali Carrera
Natali Carrera is a devoted coffee addict who also loves her twelve-year-old son, husband of 17 years and bargain hunting at Target. She works in the field of education and is also a freelance writer and YouTube vlogger (as a hobby). She's been told "bubbly" is the best descriptor of her personality, though she wonders if what people really mean is that she talks too much. Natali is a lifelong Fresno resident and Fresno State grad.
Latest posts by Natali Carrera (see all)

As your resident FresYes coffee-obsessed blogger, you have to know that if a new coffee shop opens in town, I will absolutely be visiting as soon as possible to share all the details with you, dear FresYes readers!

Los Panchos Mexican restaurant located on the northeast corner of Fulton and Tulare in Downtown Fresno has done some really innovative things under their roof in the past year. Their beautifully remodeled tequila bar has hosted an ongoing pop-up (prior to COVID closures) for Quail State, the upcoming rooftop bar going in on the top floor of the Pacific Southwest building. And now, as of this month, Los Panchos is also serving as home to Fresno’s newest coffee shop, the Frida Café.

My mini concha from Frida Café
Frida Cafe’s counter/Los Panchos tequila bar

Frida Café is the brainchild of Albee Sanchez, who wanted to create a coffee experience as exciting to the eye as the taste buds. The café, which is now located at the tequila bar inside Los Panchos, features images of legendary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, who was best known for her self-portraits, featuring bold and beautiful colors. Sanchez carried bold and beautiful colors throughout the décor of the café area, and even into the drinks he prepares – as each milk used is dyed with natural, organic food dyes.

Frida Café’s community Ofrenda (visitors are encouraged to honor their own departed loved ones by adding a memento to the ofrenda, a Mexican tradition that is part of the Dia de los Muertos cultural celebration)
Frida Café’s menu

Frida Café’s menu consists of six specialty drinks and mini pan dulce (Mexican sweet pastries). Their drink menu includes:

  • Agave Chai – An earthy chai made with agave nectar, cinnamon and pale blue milk
  • White Rose – A white chocolate and rose latte with pink milk
  • Almond Citrus – Latte featuring natural orange and almond extracts with fresh orange zest on top
  • Smoked Vanilla – a smoked vanilla late with Saigon cinnamon and red milk
  • Lavender Cream – a creamy, light and sweet latte with lavender flavoring
  • Mayan Xoco – a spicy, intense natural hot cocoa with cinnamon and shaved chili

On my recent visit, I tried the Smoked Vanilla and it was very tasty and served piping hot and “made with so much love”. The welcome and customer service I received was exceptionally great.

Los Panchos serves a full breakfast and lunch menu in their adjacent dining room. The fenced outdoor seating area is very nice and features plenty of shade, and if you order your Frida Café drinks to enjoy on site, they’ll be served in glass mugs on a wooden tray.

The patio outside Frida Café
Pieces honoring Frida Kahlo are on display for purchase on consignment at the café

Frida Café is open 7 days a week from 7am to 2pm. It becomes quite busy on the weekends, so plan to go early or be aware that there may be quite a wait for this special new coffee shop. Street parking is metered and both coins and cards are accepted, however parking is free on weekends.

Call the sitter: it’s Fresno Adult Prom night

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Jason Farris
Head YES man at FresYes.com
I grew up in Fresno. Relaxed in its calm breezes, listened with my dad to the crack of the bat at little league baseball games when I was a kid and now take my son to do the same at minor league games. I broadened my mind at its schools (I went to high school right here at San Joaquin Memorial, and to college at Fresno State!) I love that if I drive for two hours in one direction, I can be in the mountains. For two hours in another, luxuriating on a California beach. I can enjoy the cosmopolitan atmosphere of San Francisco or Los Angeles, but still be able to come home to relaxation, calm, and quiet.

I love where I live, and I also love what I do. I'm lucky to be able to work in a profession in which I get to build relationships; one that has me meeting new people each and every day and helping them to build new lives in my beloved city. I'm lucky enough to work in a profession in which I can marry cutting-edge technologies and marketing techniques to good, old-fashioned, nose-to-the-grindstone work. I am lucky enough to work in a profession that allows me to work as an advocate for my clients; to use every tool at my disposal to get a job done well for them, and with as little stress and expense as possible.

I love my city. I love my job. One inspires my excellence for the other.

Fresno? I say FresYES
Latest posts by Jason Farris (see all)

Have you ever wished you could go back in time and relive your prom? Or at least try again with better hair and makeup? Now’s your chance!

Taking place at The Grand 1401 on Fulton St., Fresno Adult Prom will be a classy and elegant evening dedicated to downtown Fresno and the Downtown Fresno Foundation. The event is hosted by Monisha Edwards, founder of Truth Branding Agency, and our good friend Desirae Washington, co-owner of Take 3 Burgers—both of whom live and run businesses in downtown Fresno.

The theme for the night will be “A Moment Back In Time” to reflect on past high school prom memories and to cultivate nostalgia. 

Fresno Adult Prom

Event details

Fresno Adult Prom will take place Saturday, Dec. 9. There will be a VIP cocktail hour and red carpet starting at 6 p.m. A VIP dinner will be held at 7 p.m. The dance will take place from 8 p.m. to midnight. There will be a bar, light refreshments, loft lounge, and a photo suite with a selfie booth and photographer to capture your moment back in time.

Tickets for singles, couples, VIP, and tables can be purchased at www.fresnoadultprom.com.

Have fun and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, you crazy kids!

More signs added to downtown Fresno, and they look awesome

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Jason Farris
Head YES man at FresYes.com
I grew up in Fresno. Relaxed in its calm breezes, listened with my dad to the crack of the bat at little league baseball games when I was a kid and now take my son to do the same at minor league games. I broadened my mind at its schools (I went to high school right here at San Joaquin Memorial, and to college at Fresno State!) I love that if I drive for two hours in one direction, I can be in the mountains. For two hours in another, luxuriating on a California beach. I can enjoy the cosmopolitan atmosphere of San Francisco or Los Angeles, but still be able to come home to relaxation, calm, and quiet.

I love where I live, and I also love what I do. I'm lucky to be able to work in a profession in which I get to build relationships; one that has me meeting new people each and every day and helping them to build new lives in my beloved city. I'm lucky enough to work in a profession in which I can marry cutting-edge technologies and marketing techniques to good, old-fashioned, nose-to-the-grindstone work. I am lucky enough to work in a profession that allows me to work as an advocate for my clients; to use every tool at my disposal to get a job done well for them, and with as little stress and expense as possible.

I love my city. I love my job. One inspires my excellence for the other.

Fresno? I say FresYES
Latest posts by Jason Farris (see all)

With the grand (re)opening of Fulton Street a mere month away, things are really starting to happen on the former pedestrian mall. One of those things is new signage in what is now being referred to as the Fulton District.

downtown Fresno signs

New street sign at Fresno and Fulton. Notice the graphic of the Pacific Southwest Building on the sign matches its namesake in the background.

In June, new street signs were spotted at the intersection of Fulton and Tuolumne. At the time, I talked to the designer of these signs, Suzanne Bertz-Rosa of Bertz-Rosa Strategy + Creative, who said that they were part of a larger signage system that would eventually include monument and wayfinding signs (read my interview with Bertz-Rosa here).

Well, eventually has arrived, because the new signs were spotted in the area late last week. I went to see them for myself over the weekend and I have to say, they look pretty legit. Check them out for yourself and let me know what you think in the comments.

downtown Fresno signs

Wayfinding signs direct visitors to notable locations in downtown Fresno. Bertz-Rosa says there are larger signs directed at vehicle traffic, and smaller, more abundant signs for pedestrians.

downtown Fresno signs

The monument sign in the background announces your arrival in the Fulton District while the wayfinding directs you to parking and the Cultural Arts District.

downtown Fresno signs

Sign at Fulton and Tuolumne, looking west toward the Tuolumne Street bridge

downtown Fresno signs

Another wayfinding sign, this one at Merced and Fulton

Downtown Revitalization Part 2: Revitalization Begins October 21

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Craig Scharton
I’m a weirdo. I’m a downtown revitalization, old neighborhood, old houses weirdo.
Latest posts by Craig Scharton (see all)

(Read “Downtown Revitalization Part 1: Damn You, Dan Whitehurst!” here.)

I know, I know. We’ve been talking about downtown revitalization for decades. But now it’s about to actually start. It couldn’t happen without our main street being a main street, no matter how many other things we tried. So I’m going to climb out onto a limb and say that downtown revitalization will begin on the day that Fulton Street re-opens.

Fortunately that day is coming and we have a date. The big launch party will be Saturday, October 21. It is the day that our downtown will function again. Downtowns have a certain form and ours evolved as a main street, with densely packed buildings and sidewalks lined with storefronts. People could drive up to a business, could find nearby parking, could see the action, and could walk to their destination. Once this functionality is returned, life (vitality) will return.

Fulton Street Grand Re-Opening Bash

A group of volunteers is now planning for the grand re-opening party for Fulton and we’d love it if you’d join us. We are meeting every Monday night at Los Panchos (1000 Fulton Street) at 6:30 p.m. This is a fun group who is going to throw a big bash to kick off this new day for our downtown. You can be a part of this historic event by volunteering, taking a leadership role, or becoming a sponsor.

The opening day is a new beginning. When Raleigh, North Carolina re-opened its main thoroughfare, Fayetteville Street, to traffic in 2006, 80,000 people showed up to celebrate! While it’s just one day, it is an important starting point.

We’ll start the celebration with an official ribbon-cutting at 3 p.m., but get there early and we’ll have some local youth playing music to warm up the crowd. At 4 p.m. the party starts! We’ll have a cruise night with cars that are 1964 or older (1964 was the year the Fulton Mall was put in and cruising on Fulton ended). If you have an older car and would like to be among the first to drive on Fulton with your family and friends, send an email to events@downtownfresno.org.

We’ll have multiple beer and wine gardens. Bands will be playing throughout the night. Fulton restaurants will have their outdoor dining set out on the new wide sidewalks and businesses will stay open late.

We’re also looking for businesses, artists, nonprofits, and churches who would like to set up a one night pop-up business in one of the vacant (for now) storefronts. Set up your own art gallery, black box theater, vintage store, blues club, or comedy shop. The Downtown Fresno Partnership will help to find a location.

Revitalization Depends on You

How quickly will downtown revitalize once the form and function of our downtown has been restored? That is anyone’s guess. It will happen as quickly or slowly as our community rallies around our businesses. Ultimately it will be up to the people of the Central San Joaquin Valley to decide.

The City of Fresno has done its part. They have changed the outdated planning rules that held downtown back for so long. The new rules make good development easier by allowing mixed-use buildings, outdoor dining, and rooftop restaurants. They did the planning and environmental studies that led to the funding to renovate Fulton Street. The City helped with the formation of a property owners’ association (PBID), which is the Downtown Fresno Partnership. Those are the steps that only the City could accomplish, the steps that so many other cities have done to prepare the way for their downtowns to revitalize.

Now it’s up to everyone else—the community of business owners, property owners, and customers—to do their part. If people choose to support the businesses in the new Fulton Entertainment District, then those businesses will thrive. Once those businesses are bustling, more businesses will follow. This is the simple formula for success.

In June, I led the FresYes Realty | FresYes.com staff on a tour of Fulton, and someone asked a very astute question. “With all of the difficulties that brick-and-mortar businesses are facing from competition from the internet, how will downtown revitalize?”

We will thrive in the areas where the internet cannot compete. People still want to come together to hear live music, to dance, to see art, to watch sports, to eat, to stroll, to people watch. Downtowns function as gathering places, which becomes even more important when so much of life happens in the digital world.

 

If you have a group who would like a tour of downtown before the street opens, please send a message to me at fresnocraig@gmail.com. To join the Fulton Street Grand Opening Volunteers Facebook group, click here.

Downtown Fresno Revitalization Part 1: Damn You, Dan Whitehurst!

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Craig Scharton
I’m a weirdo. I’m a downtown revitalization, old neighborhood, old houses weirdo.
Latest posts by Craig Scharton (see all)

I told my friend Dan Whitehurst that “Damn You, Dan Whitehurst!” would be the title of a chapter in my memoir (or is it autobiography—I get them mixed up). Since I haven’t written that book, I’ve made it a FresYes blog post instead.

Two days after being elected to the Fresno City Council 31 years ago, I met with my mentor Dan Whitehurst. Dan had previously been the youngest person ever elected to the City Council and is still the youngest Mayor in our city’s history. He is an incredibly intelligent, intellectually curious, charming, and humorous man.

At our meeting, Dan asked me to write down my three top priorities. I wrote:

  1. Revitalize the Tower District
  2. Revitalize Downtown Fresno
  3. Preserve/Restore the San Joaquin River Area

Those of you who know me know I can be forgetful about many things. But I still remember his advice like I’m listening to a recording. His words shaped my life. This is also why I can tease him with this blog’s title. He said,

Let’s take a look at the first two priorities together. You aren’t going to learn much about revitalization here. Fresno is an informational island, very little gets in and very little gets out. So I recommend that you pack your bags and start traveling. Meet with every Mayor, Redevelopment Director and Urban Developer that you can. Bring back information that will help you to achieve your priorities. Learn from the lessons of other cities, both the good and the bad. Look for their commonalities.”

I asked him why any of these people would take the time to meet with a 25-year-old guy.

They don’t know how old you are. Say Councilman Scharton from Fresno would like to meet with you to see what you’re doing to revitalize your city. They’ll see that you’re 25 when you show up in their office. They’ll be happy to give you guidance and share what they know. Most of us enjoy sharing advice with young, enthusiastic minds.”

So that’s what I did. I started making appointments with politicians, bureaucrats, and private sector investors in cities from San Diego to San Francisco. I started going to conferences where I could listen to presentations about what other cities were doing, and then would schedule meetings with the ones that seemed to be making the most progress.

After my first year of this exploration, I reported the first three commonalities that I’d found to my City Council colleagues.

  1. Downtowns usually had to fall on really hard times before the momentum could be generated to reverse direction.
  2. Out-of-town investors were often the first ones to buy property and to invest.
  3. There was usually a person or small group of people who took on revitalization as their primary challenge (often to their financial detriment).

I also started to notice a trend: the more I was learning, the less many people wanted to hear the information that I was sharing. This is the part of the advice my mentor had left out. Leaving the informational island to get new information to bring back to the island wasn’t met with cheering crowds. What I found was that uninformed opinions had taken hold so deeply, they didn’t really want to change or to be challenged. So I had to find new strategies.

We began a process to create a land use plan for the Tower District and Fresno High area. Instead of using the City’s planning staff with their old ideas to do this plan, we let the neighbors sit on a panel to choose the best planning consultants to help us to accomplish our goals. Neighbors and business owners had never been involved with selecting a team like this before.

The new strategy was to bring outsiders onto the informational island. Now I wasn’t the spokesperson for revitalization; others could share the information about what cities were doing to successfully change their neighborhoods and downtowns. The 21 members of the Tower District Specific Plan Committee had the opportunity to learn from some of the best and brightest minds in urban planning.

While I’ve been doing revitalization-related work for 31 years, I still find there is so much more to learn. Sometimes I learn formally, through education or at a conference. Sometimes a new idea comes from one of my Urban Entrepreneurship students or from a business owner in another city. Lifelong learning can happen in so many ways. I am grateful to have had good advice from a mentor early in my career. The goal isn’t to know everything, the goal is to go out and to learn, and then to find ways to make things better for a neighborhood or a city.

We also have many more residents who have lived in other cities and then returned to Fresno with the experience of how those cities revitalized. And we have people who have moved here, and they bring their experiences onto the island as well.

Enough of us have learned from other cities that it seems the tide has shifted. The City now has some dynamic leaders in the planning department who bring a wide range of expertise from other places to pair with their local knowledge. Information is flowing in and flowing out. People like James and and Deborah Fallows are writing in The Atlantic about the good things that are happening here.

Design Your Dream Fresno Public Market

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Jason Farris
Head YES man at FresYes.com
I grew up in Fresno. Relaxed in its calm breezes, listened with my dad to the crack of the bat at little league baseball games when I was a kid and now take my son to do the same at minor league games. I broadened my mind at its schools (I went to high school right here at San Joaquin Memorial, and to college at Fresno State!) I love that if I drive for two hours in one direction, I can be in the mountains. For two hours in another, luxuriating on a California beach. I can enjoy the cosmopolitan atmosphere of San Francisco or Los Angeles, but still be able to come home to relaxation, calm, and quiet.

I love where I live, and I also love what I do. I'm lucky to be able to work in a profession in which I get to build relationships; one that has me meeting new people each and every day and helping them to build new lives in my beloved city. I'm lucky enough to work in a profession in which I can marry cutting-edge technologies and marketing techniques to good, old-fashioned, nose-to-the-grindstone work. I am lucky enough to work in a profession that allows me to work as an advocate for my clients; to use every tool at my disposal to get a job done well for them, and with as little stress and expense as possible.

I love my city. I love my job. One inspires my excellence for the other.

Fresno? I say FresYES
Latest posts by Jason Farris (see all)

Last week I visited Seattle for the first time, and I was able to make several trips to the famous Pike Place Public Market. (Watching fish carcasses get thrown around is actually kinda gross — who knew?)

While there, I started thinking about the proposed Fresno public market. Last September, it was announced that initial plans were in place to investigate the feasibility of a public market located in the old Gottschalks building on Fulton Street in downtown Fresno.

I haven’t heard anything about it since then, but that hasn’t stopped me from thinking about what I’d like to see from a Fresno public market.

Fresh fruits and vegetables is pretty much a given — we know a local market would heavily feature fresh local produce. But here’s what else I’d love to see.

Fresno public market

How fun would it be to see a large sign like this atop the old Gottschalks building?

Flowers

One of the coolest things about Pike Place is its flower stalls. Rows of large, fragrant bouquets are everywhere. It was so tempting to buy them up — alas, I knew I couldn’t keep them alive through a plane ride back to Fresno, so I had to admire them from afar.

Books & Magazines

I found a used book store tucked away in Seattle’s market and it was just so cool to stumble across it. I know magazines are a dying industry, but it’d be great to see a news stand/magazine rack/bookstore in the Fresno public market. If you’re gonna dream, dream big, right?

Cheese

Cheese is probably the best food ever, so I’d love to see a stall with nothing but cheese and so would you, don’t lie.

Fresno public market

Old Stove Brewing Co. at Pike Place Market serves soft pretzels with mustard as well as beer flights featuring sour ale (my favorite).

Pretzels & Beer

One thing I found interesting while in Seattle was that nearly every restaurant I went to had large pretzels on the menu. Not sure why this is, but I like it.

Pretzels with cheese and/or mustard are delicious, and even more so when served with cold beer. I’d love to see in the Fresno market a small food place/brewery that served sour ale (and other beer, I guess) and soft pretzels with different hot cheeses. And fried pickles! And a charcuterie plate. Seriously, I want all of this right now.

Crab

Okay, Pike Place obviously has a major advantage over a proposed Fresno market — proximity to a large body of water — but sometimes you just want a cup of crab cocktail. Amirite?

Fresno public market

A fish market might not be the most practical thing for a city located in a virtual desert, but one can dream.

 

And that’s what a dream Fresno public market would look like to me. Now it’s your turn. Build your ideal market in the comments below.

 

 

Look No Further Than Frosty Queen for Old-Fashioned Burger Goodness

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JoAnn Hallum
Houseplant killing optimist- freelance writer -kid herder
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Here’s everything you need to know about Frosty Queen: Pastrami burgers, hot fudge sundaes, fried zucchini, onion rings, and cheese fries. The end.

Ha, just kidding. I’ll tell you more, including where to find this list of deliciousness.

Follow the pink sign to find a frosty treat!

 

If you love old-fashioned hamburgers and thick milkshakes, Frosty Queen is serving them up seven days a week in Fresno’s Mural District. On the corner of Van Ness and Divisadero it stands, with a vibrant blue roof and a bright pink sign — it’s hard to miss. Not only are the burgers old fashioned, so are the flowers. I was charmed by the hollyhocks that line the bright blue wrought iron gate around the restaurant when I was there.

Frosty Queen opened its doors in Fresno in January. There were locations already in Madera and Huron, and soon, Visalia will be able to get Boston Shakes at a new location on Lovers Lane.

The staff in Fresno is polite and helpful. They patiently explained the menu to me, including answering questions like, “What IS a Boston Shake?” (FYI, it’s just a regular milkshake with whipped cream and peanut topping).

Tons of Customizable Menu Options

I couldn’t wait to try out Frosty Queen for myself because, let’s be honest, all burgers aren’t created equally.

For extra fun, I took my husband with me, who’s allergic to pork and anything else that makes you happy. He was able to find something on the menu that fit his diet with little trouble. The thing about Frosty Queen is, they’ll make whatever you want. As their menu declares, “Customize it the way you deserve!”

You’ll probably have to make a few trips to try everything that looks tasty. The menu is extensive. For example, you can order fries, cheese fries, curly fries, chili cheese fries, pastrami cheese fries, okra, onion rings, fried pickles, mushrooms, zucchini… I’m going to stop there but the list goes on. It’s actually hard to write about this place because, with three pages of menu, there’s no way to cover it all. So, don’t miss ANYTHING and check it out for yourself.

Frosty Queen Fresno

Lettuce-wrapped burgers with melted cheese for those with a Paleo bent

By the way, I fell in love with the pastrami burger when I was there. I can’t even describe it in words so I took a photo. Go there, eat that, be happy.

Frosty Queen Fresno

The San Joaquin Burger, my new favorite thing

Dessert Options

The best advice I can give you is to arrive hungry. As if a giant pastrami burger wasn’t enough, I ordered dessert. It’s called Frosty Queen, for Pete’s sake — dessert is a requirement. Therefore, I ordered a small sundae with hot fudge, bananas, and a cherry on top. The ice cream is a smooth soft serve and the hot fudge cools to a perfect chewy consistency. Charmed by whipped cream, my kids all ordered small Boston Shakes. In the words of my 7-year-old, “Remind me never to order a shake from McDonald’s again! This is amazing!”

No matter what you order, the portion sizes are extremely generous. For example, with four kids in tow, there were still leftover crinkle-cut fries, and I could not finish my “small” sundae. So, maybe my advice to you is to arrive hungry and bring a hungry friend to help you eat.

Frosty Queen Fresno

You can customize your soft serve with 12 options, including fresh bananas

What It Costs

The prices at Frosty Queen are reasonable for the amount of freshly prepared food you get. A milkshake starts at $2.50 and a San Joaquin Burger meal like mine is around seven bucks. Cheese costs extra, but all of the burgers come with thousand island sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and pickles, so it seems fair to pay a little more for cheese.

Frosty Queen also has Happy Hour from 5 to 9 p.m. with corn dogs at 89 cents and two medium chili fries for five bucks. If you can’t make it during those hours but still want a deal, there are also family deals like 3 chicken sandwiches, 3 fries, and 3 large drinks for $17. Finally, you can pay with cash or card.

Other Details

I took four kids there and no one batted an eye; it’s super kid friendly. I love that there’s a covered outdoor seating area that’s gated from the street because sometimes kids get squirrelly (she said, offending the entire squirrel population).

All of the food is available to go, including Frosty Queen’s ice cream. So cone or cup, you can take your sweet treat with you if you need to race back to work after lunch. The service is a bit slower than typical fast food, probably because they are making your order with fresh ingredients. Even the milkshakes took time, but trust me, it’s worth the wait.

Additionally, there’s a parking lot with ample parking and a drive-thru for those on the go.

After my little lunch excursion I drove around for a minute to show my kids some of Fresno’s famous murals. In fact, one of the big thrills for my children was seeing the mural in the Frosty Queen parking lot, which features Wolverine. So, if you’re wanting a quick bite or a fun family experience, head to Frosty Queen in the mural district, you won’t regret it (but your pants might).

Frosty Queen Fresno

You know you’re in the mural district when you have this colorful view in the parking lot

Where to Go

There are currently three Frosty Queen Locations and another one in the works.

Fresno
1850 VanNess Ave.
Fresno, CA 93721
(559)721-7445
(559)721-7616

Facebook page for Fresno Frosty Queen is here

Madera (next to the movie theater)
1120 N. Gateway Dr.
Madera, CA 93637
(559)673-7678

Facebook here

Huron
36576 S. Lassen Ave
Huron, CA 93235
(559)945-7004

Huron’s Frosty Queen Facebook Page is here

Visalia
Location is coming soon to the AM/PM on 600 S. Lovers Lane, check out their Facebook page here

Full Menu

Even though I used a ton of commas, I didn’t scratch the surface on the menu selection. You can see the entire menu by clicking here (prices subject to change).

‘Views’ Tour Offers a New & Dizzying Perspective on Fresno

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Natali Carrera
Natali Carrera is a devoted coffee addict who also loves her twelve-year-old son, husband of 17 years and bargain hunting at Target. She works in the field of education and is also a freelance writer and YouTube vlogger (as a hobby). She's been told "bubbly" is the best descriptor of her personality, though she wonders if what people really mean is that she talks too much. Natali is a lifelong Fresno resident and Fresno State grad.
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You’ve likely seen many photos of the Downtown Fresno skyline, but have you ever had the chance to see it from 14 stories up? Last weekend, I had the unique opportunity to see our city from the top floor of the Pacific Southwest Building—Fresno’s tallest building—thanks to the free, monthly Fulton Walking Tour. I also learned a lot about Downtown Fresno along the way.

views tour

“Views” tour participants on the roof of the CityView building take in the scenery

First Stop: CityView at Van Ness

January’s tour, which was called “Views,” began at 9:30 a.m. at the CityView at Van Ness apartments located on the corner of Van Ness and Inyo (each month’s tour has a different focus).

Our tour guide, Craig Scharton, Fund Manager of Fulton Street Investors and FresYes contributor extraordinaire, introduced us to Preston Prince, who is Director of the Fresno Housing Authority. Prince told us that the CityView building was created to provide affordable housing to lower-wage earners working near the Downtown Fresno area.

views tour

CityView at Van Ness, located at Van Ness and Inyo in Downtown Fresno

Federal dollars provided to housing authorities paid for the cost of the building so, without a mortgage debt, the Fresno Housing Authority is able to offer tenants safe, modern housing at a price just high enough to cover the building’s operation but still much lower than typical local rent prices. Prince introduced us to one of the building’s maintenance coordinators, who was once homeless, and who has since written a book, become a resident of the building, and purchased his first car in 17 years.

We also learned that though it may not seem like it at times, homelessness in Fresno has actually considerably decreased over the past five years, though it seems more visible now because the population has spread out across Fresno. The number of Fresnans reporting homelessness was once as high as 5,000, but last year was down to around 1,500.

We were able to tour an apartment that was being prepared for a new tenant, and the space was modern and bright. From there, we ascended to the roof of the building to get a look around from the southern part of downtown.

views tour

Bitwise South Stadium as seen from the 4th floor of CityView at Van Ness

views tour

My son and I take in the views from the roof of the CityView building

Next Stop: Fulton Street

The next stop on the tour was at the southern end of Fulton Street (Inyo and Fulton), where we learned about how construction of the area was coming along, and where we were able to see the start of the new thoroughfare and pedestrian path.

Later this year, Fulton Street—formerly Fulton Mall—will be open to vehicle traffic with one lane in each direction, and also to pedestrians, with wide sidewalks and new LED lighting at two different heights. One set of lights will illuminate the walkways below the eventual tree canopy and one will be above to ensure the path is well-lit.

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The beginnings of the revamped Fulton Street with the Pacific Southwest building in the distance

Checking out the Pacific Southwest Building

Our next stop on the tour was the Pacific Southwest Building. According to the history of the building, it was the most expensive skyscraper built statewide between 1920 and 1930, and it remains Fresno’s tallest and likely most-recognizable and iconic building.

The interior of the building has dark hardwood (Tennessee Walnut), marble, and Italian architecture, and is quite beautiful. The gilded ceilings and ornate molding on the walls are elegant reminders of the past.

The ground floor boasts a grand ballroom that is used frequently for formal weddings and City events. Four floors of the building offer prestigious loft-style homes with a view of Chukchansi Park. The top floor is currently under construction and plans exist to create a sky-view bar and grill. The 14th floor balcony is narrow and surrounds the building, giving guests a 360-degree view of the entire Fresno skyline. Coming back down to the ground floor from the 14th provides all who take the stairs with a mind-boggling, exhilarating, and dizzying view of a squared spiral staircase that seems straight out of the movies.

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Chukchansi Park as seen from the 14th floor of the Pacific Southwest Building

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The Courthouse, City Hall, and Community Hospital as seen from the 14th floor of the Pacific Southwest Building

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The southeast view from the 14th floor of the Pacific Southwest Building

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Northern view from the 14th floor of the Pacific Southwest Building

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The seemingly never-ending spiral staircase

How You Can Join a Future Walking Tour

All in all, our tour experience was really enjoyable and educational—I highly recommend joining in on a future tour. Thanks to Craig for a one-of-a-kind experience touring our great city from a whole new perspective!

To find out more information about monthly walking tours, check out the Fresno Downtown Partnership on Facebook or visit their website.

Visit Pacific Bank Building During Art Hop Thursday

If you want to get an up-close look at the Pacific Southwest Building this week, Fresno Dance Collective: NOCO will be performing Thursday in the ballroom. It’s a great opportunity to take in some visual art as well as aerial dance performances in Fresno’s tallest building.