These former truck drivers dreamed of opening a restaurant in Fresno. Now they have two
Best buddies since high school, the owners of a pair of new local restaurants in southwest Fresno have worked a lot of jobs together.
They started making sandwiches at Subway while students at Sanger High. Then they became nurses and decided it wasn’t for them. Then it was on to truck driving.
It was during those long trips from Seattle to Maine — sometimes only coming home once a month — that a simmering dream of running their own restaurant began to boil over into reality. They worked even harder to save money to open their own place.
Saab Singh and Harpreet Singh started by opening four Deli Delicious sandwich franchises — in Sanger, Selma, Los Banos and Marina — between the two of them.
They later brought in another old high school friend, Pavandeep Singh. In January, the trio opened Buttery Buns, a restaurant near North Avenue and Highway 99 serving hamburgers and fried goodies. And no, none of them are related. Singh is a common Punjabi last name.
A few months later, they added a second restaurant under the same roof. Zeus Fresh Mediterranean offers more healthy food, including pitas, salads and plates with shawarma and kebab meat.
“We just wanted to make our own brand,” said Saab Singh. “Basically, that was the dream.”
Warehouses, workers and two locally owned businesses
The restaurants, which share a dining room, are in an industrial part of town.
Not far from the giant Amazon distribution center, the eateries are surrounded by warehouses, truck yards and big companies such as FedEx.
They estimate there are 8,000 employees within a 1-mile radius of their location.
When they were truck drivers, the restaurant owners picked up loads at Amazon.
So they knew the area, and knew they wanted to provide a local option, something other than the fast food at Panda Express or Starbucks.
They knew it had to carry drinks from Pepsi because there’s a Pepsi Co. facility a block away. They wanted a variety of food — healthy, fried, etc. — and knew it had to be quick.
Now they get groups of employees, such as crews of utility workers, coming in to eat, ordering from both restaurants then sharing a table.
And occasionally there are customers who walk in Zeus’ door, look at the menu, walk out the door and then walk in Buttery Buns’ door before sheepishly realizing they could have just stepped across the dining room.
Zeus Mediterranean food
On the Zeus side, customers customize their dishes. They pick their protein (chicken shawarma, chicken or beef kebabs, falafel or a combo of lamb and beef), and their vegetables. Then, they pick sauces such as the popular spicy garlic sauce (that isn’t really that spicy).
“A lot of people are on break for 30 minutes, so they don’t have a lot of time,” Harpreet Singh said. “This is Chipotle style, express style.”
The plates come with sides such as dolmas (stuffed grape leaves), spanakopita made in house or hummus.
Prices range from $10.39 to $14.55.
Buttery Buns
On the Buttery Buns side is the more American food, including burgers, fries and sandwiches.
And yes, they do butter the buns, swiping melted butter on them before toasting them.
“We like the buns to be buttered,” said Saab Singh of the name. “We find that it’s catchy and it’s memorable.”
The menu also has breakfast options, a Nashville hot chicken sandwich and a popular turkey with bacon and avocado. Prices range from $8 to $10.39
One unique option? The butter chicken sandwich — crispy chicken with spiced onions and the same curry sauce you’d get if you ordered a dish of butter chicken at an Indian restaurant.
This is where the owners’ Indian heritage has shown up on the menu — though they grew up eating Mediterranean food too, so clearly there’s no one label for this restaurant.
The restaurants are bustling during lunchtime, but less so at dinnertime. That’s the next goal, Harpreet Singh said.
“We’re hoping to bring people from residential areas in the evenings,” he said.
Details: The restaurants are at 1456 E. North Ave. Hours: Zeus is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, except for Sundays, when it closes at 5 p.m. Buttery Buns is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays.
