Fresno Mexican restaurant El Mariachi is now Masa Madre

The name of this Fresno Mexican restaurant that opened its doors in June at Palm and Bullard avenues says a lot about it: Masa Madre.

Masa for the ingredient that goes into the handmade tortillas that are at the heart of the menu. Madre, the Spanish word for mother, referencing the mom and her family who have survived a rough run of months that saw their old restaurant’s location shut its doors.

“When I say it, I picture my mom making tortillas,” said Bryan Hernandez. His parents, Sandy and Jaime, founded the former El Mariachi restaurant at Bullard and Marks avenues.

That location closed in March after 25 years. Its lease was up for renewal and the family couldn’t come to an agreement with the landlord, Hernandez said.

Things looked pretty bleak for a while when they didn’t know what would happen next.

“It was a matter of their business surviving,” said commercial Realtor Shannon Mar of Realty Concepts, who helped create the lease for the business in its new location. “I’m glad that their business and their family will survive.”

Today, the Hernandez family is celebrating.

The new restaurant is up and running a few doors down from Mama Mia Pizzeria. Bryan, at 37, has become the driving force behind the business, and has overcome his own health challenges.

He likes to think that his parents’ restaurant didn’t close, but morphed into something better and more modern.

“We are all immigrants. It’s tough times for immigrants lately too, so it feels good they built something. They never went out of business,” he said. “It was more like, let’s start something new.”

That, and they got tired of fielding phone calls from people thinking the El Mariachi they were calling was actually a band for hire.

“People would always call and ask us, ‘how much per hour?’ and we were like, ‘What do you mean? This is a restaurant,’” he said.

The menu A plate of discada tacos with pork and mixed beef are served up at Masa Madre, a New Mexican restaurant on the northeast corner of Palm and Bullard avenues in Fresno. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com

The old favorites from El Mariachi are still on the menu.

The former Mariachi burrito is now the Masa Madre burrito. It’s stuffed with chile verde and smothered in cheese.

The cheese gets blasted tableside with handheld torch that turns it melty and browned. The meatless cheese-topped chile relleno gets the same treatment.

Some new items have been added to the menu, too.

There’s the discada tacos, with a blend of beef and pork. And the ceviche tacos are popular.

Arriving on the menu soon?

A bacon-wrapped Anaheim pepper stuffed with Monterey jack cheese and served with a spicy berry habanero sauce that earns rave reviews from everyone who tries it.

The recipes all come from Sandy Hernandez’s hands in the kitchen. She and her family are from Durango, but that’s not necessarily where the recipes come from.

“This is not a Durango style, this is my own,” she said. “This is my recipe for my son.”

The restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.

Tortilla-making classes Homemade tortillas are flipped on the griddle at Masa Madre, a New Mexican restaurant on the northeast corner of Palm and Bullard avenues in Fresno. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com

Sandy Hernandez has been making tortillas since she was 6 years old.

And as soon as Masa Madre gets its liquor license and holds its grand opening in the coming months, it will host tortilla-making classes. The restaurant owners will teach people how to make tortillas—there will be classes for corn and flour tortillas—and serve them an alcoholic drink or a fountain drink.

Participants will go home with a dozen tortillas and a wooden tortilla press.

The restaurant also sells tortillas by the dozen, both corn and tortilla.

Soon, it will start selling other types too—jalapeño tortillas, habanero and ube. The ube tortilla (made from the yam of the same name) is purple.

Family Bryan Hernandez, left, stands with his parents, Sandy and Jaime, along with several dishes at his new restaurant, Masa Madre, on the northeast corner of Palm and Bullard avenues in Fresno. Hernandez’s parents had El Mariachi and helped him get his new restaurant started. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com

Bryan Hernandez is an only child. The trio has been working together at the restaurant since Bryan was about 11 years old.

His parents are still in their mid 50s, but his dad says the restaurant is his son’s place now.

“I’m about to retire,” he said. “He’s going to be the one in charge now.”

The restaurant is not the only challenge on his son’s shoulders. From the outside, Bryan looks like a young man with tattoos and braids who’s into fast cars. What most people don’t know is that Bryan is handicapped and frequently in pain.

He has several autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. He gets chemotherapy treatments. He says he gets looks for using a handicap parking placard.

He shared these details not to gain sympathy, but to show what the family has overcome.

“Nothing’s impossible,” he said, with a smile. “I love my parents for starting El Mariachi and I hope can do this for them for the next 50 years,” he said.

Breakfast items like chilaquiles along with other dishes are served up at Masa Madre, a New Mexican restaurant on the northeast corner of Palm and Bullard avenues in Fresno. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com Bryan Hernandez shows how he will use a flame torch to melt and char the cheese on a chili verde burrito table side at his new restaurant, Masa Madre, on the northeast corner of Palm and Bullard avenues in Fresno. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com Masa Madre is a new Mexican restaurant at the northeast corner of Palm and Bullard avenues in Fresno. Bryan Hernandez, the son of the owners of El Mariachi, is opening the restaurant. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com

This story was originally published September 30, 2026 at 10:47 AM.

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