{"id":377644,"date":"2026-06-27T22:28:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T22:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/377644\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T22:28:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T22:28:47","slug":"10-months-after-fire-fresno-restaurant-almost-open-again-how-to-eat-there-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/377644\/","title":{"rendered":"10 months after fire, Fresno restaurant almost open again. How to eat there now"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Yosemite Falls Cafe<\/a> at Blackstone and Shaw avenues is almost ready to reopen \u2014 almost.<\/p>\n

The popular restaurant, closed for nearly 10 months after its fryer caught fire, is putting the finishing touches on its kitchen\u2019s hood exhaust system.<\/p>\n

Owner Manny Perales is crossing his fingers that the restaurant will open in the next few weeks, pending the few remaining inspections it needs to pass.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re real close,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re making the corrections as we speak and the engineers are engineering as we speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is a way you can eat and drink at the restaurant.<\/p>\n

While the kitchen and the dining room are not cleared to open just yet, the lounge and bar are. After being closed for so long, Perales wanted to get some income coming in.<\/p>\n

So a limited menu of food \u2014 prepared at the restaurant\u2019s Clovis location and kept warm or cool \u2014 is brought in and served in the lounge. A full bar with cocktails and beer is also available.<\/p>\n

Carne asada nachos, Buffalo wings, shrimp cocktail, hot dogs, a tri-tip chili hot dog and rotating salads are on the menu. Menudo is available on Sundays.<\/p>\n

Because the kitchen and dishwasher can\u2019t be used yet, they\u2019re using disposable plates and plasticware.<\/p>\n

The lounge is open starting at 3 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and at 11 a.m. Sundays until around 11 p.m. each day.<\/p>\n

There will be live bands or DJs most nights.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fortunate to be able to be open and have a little bit of business, but man, I want to get open,\u201d Perales said.<\/p>\n

What caused the fire?<\/p>\n

On Aug. 29, the pilot light under the fryer was out. A worker lay down on the floor to relight it and, \u201cboom, a burst of fire on the back of the fryer,\u201d Perales said.<\/p>\n

The worker was not burned and got the other workers out of the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fryer damage and the fire was not that bad; it\u2019s just that it\u2019s a 50-year-old building,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was a lot of smoke in the ducts. … They thought there was other fires throughout the walls, so they had to really tear it apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because the fire was being investigated, the workers were told not to go inside the building.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe water ran for weeks,\u201d Perales said. \u201cIt was a mess, water everywhere. Water almost a foot high in the kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The old ducting \u2014 all 32 feet of it \u2014 had to be replaced. Part of the roof, ceiling, walls, fans, and tiles were ripped out and replaced. The dining room has new tables, carpet and paint, and they did some improvements in the bar, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe restaurant looks beautiful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And one behind-the-scenes perk of what is normally a hot and sweaty kitchen? The cooling system now has four fans instead of one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cooks are gonna be: \u2018Phew!\u2019\u201d Perales said. \u201cThey\u2019re gonna be in heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the cooks and other workers have stuck with the company through the nearly 10 months since the fire, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod bless my employees,\u201d he said. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to work anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Manny<\/p>\n

Manny Perales, owner of Yosemite Falls Cafe on Blackstone near Shaw in Fresno, is expecting the restaurant’s reopening in July after a fire forced its closure nearly 10 months ago.<\/p>\n

(CRAIG KOHLRUSS\/ckohlruss@fresnobee.com)\"The<\/p>\n

The familiar wild animal taxidermy will still be part of the remodeled dining room at Yosemite Falls Cafe on Blackstone near Shaw in Fresno for its expected reopening in July after a fire forced its closure nearly 10 months ago.<\/p>\n

(CRAIG KOHLRUSS\/ckohlruss@fresnobee.com)\"Yosemite<\/p>\n

Yosemite Falls Cafe on Blackstone near Shaw Avene in Fresno is close to reopening after a fire forced its closure nearly 10 months ago.<\/p>\n

(CRAIG KOHLRUSS\/ckohlruss@fresnobee.com)\"New<\/p>\n

New tables, rug and other details will be part of the remodeled dining room at Yosemite Falls Cafe on Blackstone near Shaw in Fresno for its expected reopening in July after a fire forced its closure nearly 10 months ago.<\/p>\n

(CRAIG KOHLRUSS\/ckohlruss@fresnobee.com)\"The<\/p>\n

The lounge and bar area at Yosemite Falls Cafe on Blackstone near Shaw in Fresno is opening with a limited menu prior to the restaurant’s expected reopening in July. A a fire forced its closure nearly 10 months ago.<\/p>\n

(CRAIG KOHLRUSS\/ckohlruss@fresnobee.com)<\/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":377645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113,152887],"class_list":["post-377644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-manny-perales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377644","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=377644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}