A restaurant with an impressive pedigree appears headed for Fresno.
Consuelo Alvarado wants to open Tabachines Cocina in North Pointe Center on the southwest corner of Palm and Herndon avenues in North Fresno.
Dirk Poeschel, one of Fresno’s top land-use consultants, filed on Thursday a conditional use permit application on Alvarado’s behalf.
“The proposed restaurant will serve authentic Hispanic cuisine prepared by an award winning chef in a family atmosphere,” the CUP application states. “Some special events where a customer reserves the entire restaurant will occur most likely during holidays or for special occasions, such as birthdays or small private parties, etc.”
I bumped into Poeschel as he was leaving City Hall on Thursday. He said Alvarado’s Tabachines Cocina restaurant in Los Angeles is very popular. He also said Alvarado is married to former Fresno City Council Member Leonel Alvarado.
Leonel Alvarado represented District 5 from 1979 to 1983. Fresno at the time had a council-city manager form of government. The council had seven voting members – six representatives and a mayor elected citywide. The city manager, who ran day-to-day operations, had a job as long as he had four friends on the council.
Tabachines Cocina in Los Angeles is located in the city’s heart, not far from Pershing Square and the Financial District.
“The main ingredient in our food is passion, culture,” says Consuelo Alvarado on the restaurant’s website.
The website adds: “The colorful, playful and vibrant essence of our Mexican culture and its people are reflected in our food. Our traditional family recipes always include authentic ingredients in order to achieve the unique flavors of our Mexican cuisine rooted in Guadalajara. Simplicity is found in all of our dishes along with colorful and playful plating.”
Here’s an offering from the Los Angeles restaurant’s lunch menu: Carne Asada: 8 oz. steak with a medley of roasted and raw vegetable salad and sides of guacamole, chile verde salsa, jalapeno chimichuri, bowl of pinto beans, roasted corn, pico de gallo, and topped with cotija cheese. Served with warm corn tortillas.
Here’s an offering from the Los Angeles restaurant’s dinner menu: Cochinita Pibil: Red coleslaw, green rice with black beans, plantains, pickled onions, habanero salsa. Warm corn tortillas.
The CUP application for the Fresno restaurant proposes some tenant improvements and seeks a Type 47 alcohol license – sale of beer, wine and distilled spirits for consumption on the premises.
“The restaurant will serve beer and wine with meals,” the CUP application states. “At a later date when a distilled spirits license becomes available, distilled spirits will be sold for consumption on premises.”
The site is about 2,800 square feet. There also is an outdoor patio area of 572 square feet.
The Fresno restaurant will be open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and until midnight on weekends. No dancing is proposed. No live music is proposed. Exterior music will be limited to background music.
There will be an estimated nine employees per shift, two shifts per day.
“It is estimated that the maximum number of customers that may be accommodated daily is 150 including the seating in the existing 572 sq. ft. outdoor patio area,” the CUP application states.
The CUP application doesn’t identify the Fresno restaurant’s “award winning” chef or date of opening.
What kind of restaurant will Fresno and the region get in Tabachines Cocina?
Poeschel told me on Thursday that it would be upscale, memorable and tasty.
There’s another way of answering the question. To do a Google search of Consuelo and Leonel Alvarado is to know they are active in business and civic affairs.
In Fresno, business and civic affairs inevitably turn into political affairs.
I’m guessing a City Hall reporter would love to eavesdrop on the table talk at Fresno’s Tabachines Cocina.
