Getting a treat after hitting the gym is a common tradition, but some Fresno restaurants are offering a one-stop-shop by sponsoring and hosting fitness clubs and events.
Walk Club
Dab Tacos, in Fresno’s Brewery District, led dozens of people in walking around the district and downtown Monday night.
It was the restaurant’s second time hosting the event. Its owner, Nik Velasquez, has wanted to create a walking club for some time, but he wasn’t sure how popular the idea was going to be.
It surprised him when around 60 people showed up for the first event, and about the same number came to the second.
Velasquez chose walking in part because of its accessibility to a broader community. Some of the people who joined him on the walk brought their young children, while others brought their dogs.
The walk club now meets every Monday at 7 p.m., with the walk itself starting at 7:30. Velasquez bought a cart to haul around a speaker and a generator for the walks, and the speaker plays upbeat Mexican dance music.
“We want to keep it fun; keep you energized during the walk,” Velasquez said.
The routes change, but the end result is always that people have walked a 5K by the end of the night. Dab Tacos provides cool water to people before the walk starts, and afterward, offers health-conscious options like protein bowls to any who worked up an appetite.
Joseph Soleno is the co-owner of The Rec Room, a bar right next to Dab Tacos. The Rec Room isn’t normally open on Mondays, but both businesses offered drink specials to those who attended the Walk Club.
“I want to see this turn into a whole-block thing,” Soleno said.
Pilates
Some fitness opportunities are collaborations between studios and other businesses in the community. Club Pilates Clovis Regional Manager Ventan Um has been partnering with BarrelHouse Brewing since February, when they held their first Mat Pilates & Pints event.
Mat Pilates & Pints happens about once a month and always on a Saturday morning. To join, people buy tickets and bring their own yoga mats and grip socks. If they don’t have those socks, the club offers them at the event.
Um estimates that the events draw in anywhere from 45-75 people, with 75 being the upper limit of how many humans with yoga mats they can fit into the space.
“We wanted to bring pilates to the community,” Um said.
The ticket pays for a drink voucher during VIP hour after the class. For those who are sober (or underage, as the class is open to everyone 14 years of age and older), there are non-alcoholic options available.
“It’s beautiful to see the community come together,” Um said.
Run Clubs
For the Fresno Beer Runners, working together with restaurants, breweries and coffee shops around Fresno became an inevitability once the group got bigger.
The Fresno Beer Runners have, as a club, been around since 2019, but in the last couple of years the membership has increased to the point where it’s not feasible to just tell everyone where to meet without giving owners a heads-up.
“We can’t just show up and say ‘we have 40 people who want beer,’” said Joe Verduzco, one of the club’s co-founders.
Verduzco and his co-founder, Angelica Lopez, were originally part of a different run club that fell apart. They formed the new group with the intention of supporting local businesses.
“We thought it would be cool if we met at a brewery, ran our two miles and patronize that brewery after,” Verduzco said.
Now, seven years later, the club has also become a way for people to find new places to eat and hang out. The Fresno Beer Runners have members who come from all over the region, and that brings more people into the Tower and downtown areas.
“I don’t know that they would have come to these restaurants as much,” Verduzco said.
The Fresno Bee
Amber Hair (they/them) is the food and restaurants reporter and influencer. Amber has been in professional journalism for more than a decade, writing for outlets like the Orlando Sentinel, The Villages Daily Sun, the Pacific Coast Business Times and others. In their spare time, they enjoy going to concerts, reading and spending time with their cats.