They lost their mom, so they opened a Mexican restaurant introducing her food to Fresno

If food is made with love, this restaurant was built on it.

Love — and heartbreak.

Lucy’s Gorditas is a new little takeout spot that opened last month near Clinton Avenue and Fresno Street.

Lucy — or doña Lucy as most people called her — is the mother of owner Lizett Lopez, who opened the restaurant after her mom died during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lopez, with help from her six brothers, is introducing her mother’s recipes to Fresno — including some dishes that even Mexican customers are unfamiliar with.

The restaurant specializes in gorditas. No, not like the Taco Bell gordita. Jettison that unrelated image right out of your mind.

“It’s nothing like you get at Taco Bell,” Lopez said.

Roughly translating to “little fat one,” the gorditas served here are akin to small, extra thick tortillas made by hand from masa twice a day.

Grilled until they puff, the gorditas are split open with a knife while still warm, steam billowing into the air. They fall open to form a pouch and are filled with guisados — various types of stewed meats and veggies — and grilled again.

The result is a street food that’s slightly crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, and can be eaten with one hand.

They are perhaps most similar to pupusas from El Salvador, though gorditas are cooked without oil.

At Lucy’s, the most popular fillings are chorizo, potato and cheese, and the piccadillo rojo, a stewed ground beef with potatoes.

There are a couple meatless options, including a flavorful one with corn and chiles.

The menu is simple, each gordita costs $3.50, with various combo deals available.

There’s also sopa, a side that’s essentially macaroni and cheese made with a tomato and onion base. Mexican Coke in a glass bottle is available and Mexican candies are tossed into bags of takeout orders.

Angel Lopez, Lizett’s oldest brother, works at Lucy’s on the weekends. The restaurant’s ties to his mom bring a certain kind of joy.

“There’s a satisfaction to sharing the food, especially for people who have never tried it,” he said. “There’s something really special when someone first tries it and they really enjoy it and they keep coming back.”

Durango roots

Lizett Lopez grew up in Fresno, graduating from Buchanan High School and The Center for Advanced Research and Technology in 2004. Her parents are from Durango in northern Mexico.

“Most people from Durango usually go to Dallas or Chicago, or Phoenix, Arizona, and so in Fresno, you find more people from Michoacan, or Jalisco or Oaxaca,” she said.

Gorditas are more popular in the north, where gordita stands outnumber taco stands, she said. Lopez spent every summer growing up in Durango, and remembers seeing women also sell gorditas near bus stops, bundled into baskets.

“A lot of people don’t know what it is,” Lopez said, even people who grew up in Mexico.

Which is why she and husband Chris Ohanesian do a lot of explaining to customers.

Lopez laughs as she says this. Her husband is Armenian.

“They always think he’s Mexican and they start speaking Spanish,” she said.

Gorditas are new to others too, like Todd Miller, who chatted above the buzz of clippers as he got his hair cut at DI’s cash-only barbershop next door.

“To me, it was different,” he said. “They’re pretty good.”

The gorditas recipes are doña Lucy’s — or as best as her daughter can recreate them. Her questions about recipes were often met with vague “just add this and this and this,” Lopez said.

Her mom was so secretive about her recipes she wouldn’t share them with her daughters-in-law, Angel Lopez noted.

Hard times for family

A photo of doña Lucy sits near the cash register.

“I told my brothers, ‘Mom’s watching you,’” Lopez jokes.

The brothers all work in the restaurant, though it’s Lopez who’s the driving force behind it.

After a earning a degree in biology and a career in data analysis in San Francisco, Lopez had moved home at the start of the pandemic.

In late May 2020, when all the fear and emotions tangled up in the pandemic were raging, Lopez gave birth to her first child, a boy named Vincent. Lopez’s mother was there to help in the days after the birth.

But two weeks later, doña Lucy would be dead at age 60. The elder Lopez woman thought she had coronavirus and was keeping her distance from family so she didn’t infect them.

It turned out to be an infection that was a complication of her diabetes. By the time she went to the hospital, she had gone into a sepsis, a life-threatening response to an infection.

Her family wasn’t allowed to see her in the hospital, despite doña Lucy undergoing three surgeries.

They had FaceTime visits through the nurses’ cellphones, even when she was intubated and couldn’t speak.

And then doña Lucy was gone.

“I was really happy she got to meet my baby,” Lopez said. “That was really hard.”

The restaurant

“My mom’s dream was always to make a gordita shop,” Lopez said.

Her mother worked as an home health caretaker and was preparing to retire to a house in Mexico.

She would ask her children what they wanted her to cook for their birthdays — and it was often gorditas.

The only girl in the family, Lopez often took on the responsibilities of cooking growing up. She also worked on her aunts’ taco trucks at places like the Cherry Auction.

After her mother’s death, she started asking her brothers what they wanted to eat on their birthdays.

Finally, her brother said, “Why don’t we just open the shop?”

So they did. It’s in a tiny spot in a former Lao/Thai restaurant that’s a little hard to find (look for the La Luna Bakery & Cafe mural a few doors down). It’s open mostly for lunch, and later on weekends.

The restaurant isn’t in the best neighborhood. There are bars on the windows and homeless people aren’t an uncommon site. Parking is a bit free range among the collection of buildings on the corner, though you can park on Clinton.

But Lopez doesn’t even seem to notice.

The space was right for their needs and she’s excited to introduce a new food to people in the neighborhood. The decorations on the walls came from her mother’s kitchen.

“It’s nice to be part of this community and expose people” to the food, she said.

And her brother Angel said that when the siblings are there cooking, memories of mom are strong.

“It brought us together,” he said. “When we work together there, we reminisce. We enjoy the food. We enjoy the time together.”

Details: Lucy’s Gorditas is at 2403 E. Clinton Avenue. Delivery is available through DoorDash and Uber Eats. Hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Orders can be called in at 559-212-4771.