{"id":291228,"date":"2026-04-29T09:37:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T09:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/291228\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T09:37:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T09:37:48","slug":"bulle-in-fresno-farm-to-table-fine-dining-at-marks-and-herndon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/291228\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulle in Fresno: farm-to-table fine dining at Marks and Herndon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Inside Look is a Fresno Bee series<\/a> where we take readers behind the scenes at restaurants, new businesses, local landmarks and news stories.<\/p>\n

These are just several of the ways the newly opened Bulle<\/a> is aiming to be a luxury restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to think that we\u2019re the highest end, most upscale restaurant in Fresno, in the Central Valley,\u201d said Tom Miller, who owns the restaurant with wife Davita Miller.<\/p>\n

They call it California modern cuisine made with European cooking techniques.<\/p>\n

At the northwest corner of Marks and Herndon avenues, it opened March 26 in a former Blockbuster and Chase Bank building that took two years to renovate.<\/p>\n

How to pronounce Bulle \"Tom Tom and Davita Miller stand next to a 400-year-old mirror at their restaurant, Bulle, in northwest Fresno on Tuesday, April 22, 2026. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com <\/p>\n

But before we get into the farm-to-table menu or the $45 cocktail, how do you pronounce the restaurant\u2019s name?<\/p>\n

Bulle is French for bubble. Most people at the restaurant say \u201cbool\u201d (though technically, French speakers elongate the L sound so it\u2019s almost a second syllable). But it\u2019s not Boo-lay. Not Bully. Pretend you speak French and emphasize those vowels.<\/p>\n

Walking into Bulle is a bit like walking into a bubble, as the traffic rushing by on Herndon quiets and you enter a room with velvet pink seats, a chandelier and flowers on the ceiling.<\/p>\n

Years went into crafting the decor of this restaurant, mostly by Davita Miller. She scoured lighting websites in the middle of the night and gilded that giant mirror herself.<\/p>\n

TV screens are lit up with Monet paintings. There\u2019s a twinkling tree in the middle of the dining room. The countertop on the bar glows and the orb lights above it cost well over $35,000.<\/p>\n

The menu \"A A fire-roasted eggplant dish is plated at Bulle, a new high-end restaurant in northwest Fresno that features farm-to-table dining with a focus on sustainability, in-house dry-aged meats and seasonal produce. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com <\/p>\n

The Millers \u201creal jobs\u201d are in real estate, Tom Miller said. They also own the three Press Box Sports Grill<\/a> locations in town.<\/p>\n

They like to dine out \u2014 a lot, everywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love the food culture. We love knowing what we\u2019re eating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

They want to know if the rib eye or the fish they\u2019re eating was sustainably raised and where it\u2019s from.<\/p>\n

So they decided to create a sustainable, farm-to-table restaurant here in Fresno. They source from local or California farms whenever possible. And they use as much as the protein or vegetable as they can.<\/p>\n

The duck breast from Mary\u2019s Ducks out of Sanger, for example, gets served to diners. The remaining duck fat and other parts get used in sauces and other dishes.<\/p>\n

Bulle\u2019s menu is short. Diners can expect to pay an average of $125 a person.<\/p>\n

Last week, entrees included a $69 grilled rock fish and a 40-ounce bone-in prime rib eye that was dry-aged for 30 days and served two to four people for $275.<\/p>\n

Smaller dishes are also available from the hot and cold sections of the menu, including a fire-roasted eggplant that\u2019s getting attention. (That one is gaining fans among people who don\u2019t like eggplant, Miller said, and involves an 18-month-aged Parmesan whose scent reaches across the kitchen like an octopus tentacle to find you).<\/p>\n

Meats are cooked on an Argentinian grill. It\u2019s basically a fireplace that takes up the back wall of the open kitchen, with vertical stacks of burning wood.<\/p>\n

Kevin New\u2019s job is to scoop the embers and ashes to a spot where the massive cuts of beef \u2013 and petite ones, too \u2013 can be cooked above them on an iron grate.<\/p>\n

In a European technique, sauces are cooked on a French top. Instead of an open flame, or a flat-top grill used by many restaurants, a French top produces heat in concentric circles, with pans often placed on the edge to get the chef\u2019s exact preferred temperature and texture of sauces.<\/p>\n

The Chef \"Chef Executive chef Max McCarthy puts the finishing touches on a fire-roasted eggplant dish at Bulle in northwest Fresno on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com <\/p>\n

Executive chef Max McCarthy leads the kitchen. He graduated from the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in New York. He has experience at several restaurants honored by the Michelin Guide, including the three-starred Quince<\/a> in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

He came to Fresno, in part, because his mom was from here. He remembers going to his grandparents farm in Sanger as a kid.<\/p>\n

His food is a play on the familiar, like that eggplant, or a crispy farm egg served with Iberico ham, spinach and Parmesan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dishes sound very simple and once you get them, they\u2019re very, very complex,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a little bit of discovery behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the cocktails here get the five-star treatment. The chef and beverage director Conner Jessop hit the farmers markets together. The \u201cfarm-to-glass\u201d cocktails (and zero-proof drinks) include housemade bitters, tinctures and syrups.<\/p>\n

Certain premium drinks come with ice cubes carved into the shapes of diamonds, a skill Jessop learned working at a Japanese speakeasy.<\/p>\n

That $45 cocktail is the Bulle Signature Martini. It\u2019s made with the high-end Belvedere 10 vodka and a Mediterranean gin and vermouth. It\u2019s topped with three olives hand stuffed with Point Reyes blue cheese and topped with caviar. Little dollops of Meyer lemon olive oil float atop the drink.<\/p>\n

Can Fresno support such a high-end restaurant?<\/p>\n

Reservations are recommended. They can be made online or by calling 559-375-1288<\/a>. Bulle is open from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.<\/p>\n

Walk-ins are allowed if there\u2019s seating available.<\/p>\n

Bulle has a dress code<\/a>. \u201cSmart-casual attire\u201d is requested. No athletic wear, shorts, flip-fops ripped jeans or hats in the dining room (the bar\u2019s dress code is looser).<\/p>\n

The Millers have sunk a huge investment into Bulle in Fresno.<\/p>\n

A few naysayers will always openly question whether a city known for its poverty<\/a> can support such a high-end restaurant, despite the city hosting a Rolex store that just expanded<\/a> and a Mercedes-Benz dealership that just finished a $4 million upgrade.<\/a><\/p>\n

What does Miller say to those doubters?<\/p>\n

\u201cI shut \u2018em down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fresno is the fifth-largest city in the state, he notes. With its low cost of living, the middle class has discretionary income to spend, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were going out of town all the time to get something we were craving, something we were missing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to keep people from having to leave town to go do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The The bar at Bulle in northwest Fresno is shrouded with ornate lighting and mirrors while offering unique cocktails. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com \"Grill Grill cook Kevin New gets the wood embers hot for grilling dry-aged meats at Bulle, a new high-end restaurant in northwest Fresno on Tuesday, April 23, 2026. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com \"A A Bulle signature martini with caviar is shown in a submitted photo from the restaurant. It features Belvedere 10, Mare gin, Silvio Blanco vermouth and olive oil float. Bulle Fresno Special to The Bee \"Dry-aged Dry-aged rockfish hangs in a cabinet at Bulle, a new high-end restaurant offering a variety of meats and seasonal vegetables among its rotating menus. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com \"Grill Grill cook Kevin New check on a selection of dry-aged meats before grilling at Bulle, a new high-end restaurant in northwest Fresno on Tuesday, April 23, 2026. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com \"Bulle Bulle in northwest Fresno will be offering high-end wines to compliment its unique menu. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com
\n Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Bethany Clough<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Bethany Clough covers restaurants and retail for The Fresno Bee. A reporter for more than 20 years, she now works to answer readers\u2019 questions about business openings, closings and other business news. She has a degree in journalism from Syracuse University and her last name is pronounced Cluff.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inside Look is a Fresno Bee series where we take readers behind the scenes at restaurants, new businesses,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-291228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}