Two more Fresno mom-and-pop restaurants close. ‘It’s tough in California,’ says owner

The bad news just keeps coming for the Fresno restaurant scene.

After the dramatic goodbye from Italian restaurant Oggi Cosi Si Mangia in the Tower District and the hopefully temporary closure of Javier’s Mexican Restaurant, two more locally owned restaurants have decided to close for good.

This follows the closure of 30 restaurants in the area in 2023.

Now, it’s two Asian restaurants — Wayside Noodles and Brothers Ramen & Japanese Eatery — that have served their last bowls of noodles.

Restaurants and other businesses are facing many of the same challenges, including inflation, and rising rents, labor costs, insurance and power bills. Some are still not completely recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s not always bad news when restaurateurs call it quits though. Sometimes they just want to retire.

Brothers Ramen

This ramen restaurant opened in late 2019 at the northwest corner of Blackstone and Nees avenues. It quickly developed a reputation for the Japanese noodle soup with a broth that simmered for 12 hours. But the owners decided the time was right to close its doors for several reasons.

Its last day was Wednesday.

Their lease was up after five years, noted Ryan Ah Tye, one of three partners in the restaurant.

“It’s tough in California,” he said, particularly noting the restaurant’s power bills during a Fresno summer.

“PG&E rates are so high,” he said. “Our PG&E bills during the summer, they’re just astronomical.”

They knew hot soup wouldn’t sell well during Fresno’s 105-degree and hotter days, so they had chicken and pork bowls and plates and other food appropriate for hot weather on the menu since the beginning, he noted.

“We knew it was a risk,” he said. “We knew the restaurant was going to be kind of seasonal doing ramen, but the summers seemed to be getting hotter and hotter, and it just fell off during the summer.”

But there are other factors about running a business in California that contributed to the closure, including the rising cost of living, he said. It’s getting too expensive for people to eat out regularly like they used to, he said.

I have also cited the cost of living expenses, and expenses such as insurance, including workers’ compensation insurance.

“The cost of everything in California is higher. The regulation stuff is stricter,” Ah Tye said. “I think it’s easier for larger restaurants to absorb a lot of that cost.”

Wayside Noodles

This mom-and-pop restaurant at The Square at Campus Pointe near Fresno State closed its doors and sold off everything last month, including dishes and chairs — even jars of sriracha.

Wayside Noodles was known for its pho and other approachable Vietnamese food. It announced its July 15 closure on its Facebook page.

Its message said, in part: “Despite our tireless efforts to sustain our operations, unforeseen circumstances have led us to this difficult decision.”

The owners could not be reached for comment. The Bee reached out to Campus Pointe’s landlord, the Lance Kashian company, which also owns River Park.

“We worked hard to help them succeed but they were not able to do it,” said Tracy Kashian, senior vice president of marketing and public relations, in an email to The Bee.

The restaurant first opened in 2012 in the back of Fig Garden Village. It closed that location after opening the location next to Maya Cinemas at Campus Pointe.