{"id":481022,"date":"2026-10-01T00:30:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T00:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/481022\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T00:30:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T00:30:28","slug":"fresno-mexican-restaurant-el-mariachi-is-now-masa-madre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/481022\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno Mexican restaurant El Mariachi is now Masa Madre"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s location shut its doors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say it, I picture my mom making tortillas,\u201d said Bryan Hernandez. His parents, Sandy and Jaime, founded the former El Mariachi restaurant at Bullard and Marks avenues.<\/p>\n

That location closed in March<\/a> after 25 years. Its lease was up for renewal and the family couldn\u2019t come to an agreement with the landlord, Hernandez said.<\/p>\n

Things looked pretty bleak for a while when they didn\u2019t know what would happen next.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a matter of their business surviving,\u201d said commercial Realtor Shannon Mar of Realty Concepts, who helped create the lease for the business in its new location. \u201cI\u2019m glad that their business and their family will survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, the Hernandez family is celebrating.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He likes to think that his parents\u2019 restaurant didn\u2019t close, but morphed into something better and more modern.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all immigrants. It\u2019s tough times for immigrants lately too, so it feels good they built something. They never went out of business,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was more like, let\u2019s start something new.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cPeople would always call and ask us, \u2018how much per hour?\u2019 and we were like, \u2018What do you mean? This is a restaurant,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The menu \"A 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 <\/p>\n

The old favorites from El Mariachi are still on the menu.<\/p>\n

The former Mariachi burrito is now the Masa Madre burrito. It\u2019s stuffed with chile verde and smothered in cheese.<\/p>\n

The cheese gets blasted tableside with handheld torch that turns it melty and browned. The meatless cheese-topped chile relleno gets the same treatment.<\/p>\n

Some new items have been added to the menu, too.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the discada tacos, with a blend of beef and pork. And the ceviche tacos are popular.<\/p>\n

Arriving on the menu soon?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The recipes all come from Sandy Hernandez\u2019s hands in the kitchen. She and her family are from Durango, but that\u2019s not necessarily where the recipes come from.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a Durango style, this is my own,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is my recipe for my son.\u201d<\/p>\n

The restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.<\/p>\n

Tortilla-making classes \"Homemade 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 <\/p>\n

Sandy Hernandez has been making tortillas since she was 6 years old.<\/p>\n

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\u2014there will be classes for corn and flour tortillas\u2014and serve them an alcoholic drink or a fountain drink.<\/p>\n

Participants will go home with a dozen tortillas and a wooden tortilla press.<\/p>\n

The restaurant also sells tortillas by the dozen, both corn and tortilla.<\/p>\n

Soon, it will start selling other types too\u2014jalape\u00f1o tortillas, habanero and ube. The ube tortilla (made from the yam of the same name) is purple.<\/p>\n

Family \"Bryan 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 <\/p>\n

Bryan Hernandez is an only child. The trio has been working together at the restaurant since Bryan was about 11 years old.<\/p>\n

His parents are still in their mid 50s, but his dad says the restaurant is his son\u2019s place now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m about to retire,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be the one in charge now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The restaurant is not the only challenge on his son\u2019s shoulders. From the outside, Bryan looks like a young man with tattoos and braids who\u2019s into fast cars. What most people don\u2019t know is that Bryan is handicapped and frequently in pain.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He shared these details not to gain sympathy, but to show what the family has overcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing\u2019s impossible,\u201d he said, with a smile. \u201cI love my parents for starting El Mariachi and I hope can do this for them for the next 50 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Breakfast 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 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 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 <\/p>\n

This story was originally published September 30, 2026 at 10:47 AM.<\/p>\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":"The name of this Fresno Mexican restaurant that opened its doors in June at Palm and Bullard avenues…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-481022","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\/481022","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=481022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}