Two restaurants closed, others in limbo as Bitwise blowup ripples through Fresno

The upheaval at tech company Bitwise Industries that led to the furlough of 300 local employees is spilling over to restaurants at its downtown Fresno properties.

Two restaurants are closed. One is already seeing a decrease in business. And the ones that were in the process of opening up — including La Jacka and Frida Cafe — are facing a murky future.

Independent businesses that rented space from Bitwise are still open, including Las Mañanitas 2 in the State Center Warehouse building on R Street, a few buildings north of Ventura Avenue.

But Bitwise ran two restaurants of its own, Mosaic Cafe and Railway, a pizza and cocktail place, both inside the food court-style R Street Marketplace in the same warehouse. Those are now closed indefinitely and the 15 employees furloughed.

“Everything that is happening to Bitwise employees is the same thing that is happening to them,” said Ashley Marchetti, who oversees the restaurants in the marketplace.

They’re out of a job with no information about whether it will come back. One employee told The Bee she’s due three weeks of pay.

Workers are looking for new jobs and Marchetti is asking restaurants and coffee shops that are hiring to let them know.

Las Mañanitas 2

The Mexican restaurant known for its chilaquiles is still open. It signed a lease and opened in January. The restaurant is its second location.

Owner Allen Juarez said he doesn’t know what’s going on.

“No one from upstairs has actually picked up the phone and said … this is the situation,” he said.

All his information is coming from the local news media or furloughed employees.

Bitwise co-CEO Jake Soberal did not return a voicemail or text message seeking comment about the restaurants.

Juarez estimates Bitwise workers made up about 60% of his customers on weekdays. Many employees still hadn’t moved into the State Center building, but walked from Bitwise’s other nearby properties, such as Bitwise 41 and The Hive.

He’s already feeling the drop in business.

Weekends are traditionally the restaurant’s busiest days, with customers primarily coming from outside Bitwise. He’s hoping it stays that way.

He and wife Anna Navarro still own their original restaurant on Hazelwood Boulevard near Butler Avenue. They had considered closing it and just running the Bitwise location, but Juarez said he’s thankful they didn’t.

“Oh my god, can you imagine?” he said.

Juarez and his family also signed a lease to open a poke bowl place, Aha Ahi, in one of Bitwise’s spaces. That’s on hold for now.

“We’ll see,” he said. “For me personally, it’s day by day. I could actually get a call tomorrow saying, ‘This is your last month.’”

La Jacka/Frida Cafe

At least two more businesses were in the process of moving into Bitwise buildings.

La Jacka Mobile is a food truck specializing in Mexican food made with jackfruit, often used as a meat substitute for vegans. It recently signed a three-year lease to open in Bitwise South Stadium at 700 Van Ness Ave.

La Jacka hadn’t paid Bitwise any money yet, said manager Fernanda Cox.

“Thank God,” she said.

Their agreement with Bitwise called for three months rent free, she said.

They have investors who were going to help fund the new location. They will not release their money until they have a suitable, confirmed spot to open, she said.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen next,” Cox said.

They are continuing to operate their food truck and looking for other spaces to rent.

“We are still wanting to know what’s happening with the agreement that we signed,” she said.

Frida Café also recently put up a permanent sign on Bitwise 41, the building at the corner of Ventura and R Street.

An Instagram post May 24 of a private event there showed the cafe space in the building all set up for the business’s coffee and snacks with a Mexican vibe. A painting of artist Frida Kahlo was hung on the wall.

The owner could not be reached for comment.

According to comments on the post, he is still planning to open inside the historic Fresno Water Tower, though it is taking longer than expected.

Employees

Workers say they’ve received little information beyond the initial announcement, and many are starting to look for other jobs.

Katie Truax, who left The Revue coffee shop after it changed hands, had started working at Railway and Mosaic.

She’s out three weeks of pay. Her last paycheck bounced and she worked another week after that she doesn’t expect to be paid for.

Her email, where she had links to legal resources and mental health tips, was deleted, she said. She doesn’t expect to get her job back and is thankful she already had a second job.

“In addition to concern for the hundreds directly affected negatively in this area alone, I am overwhelmingly disappointed that a dream for developing downtown seems now just that much further away,” she said in a message.

Bitwise broke the news to employees with a hastily scheduled Zoom meeting at 8 p.m. Monday on the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Jacqueline Hanson, head pastry chef at Mosaic for two months, acknowledged that the news was even more devastating for employees who have worked in other parts of Bitwise’s business for years and rely on the income to support their families.

“The look on people’s faces,” she said of seeing colleagues on the video call. “For them, it was devastating and you could see it was very upsetting, very heartbreaking. You could see everything falling apart for them right before their eyes.”

Hanson will continue to run Tasty Morsels, the bread-baking business she ran before taking the job, and has other opportunities cooking.

She said she loved Bitwise’s vision for Fresno and how ambitious the company was.

“I really liked that idea, but I feel like the expansion was just too fast,” she said. “That ambition can really get away from you quickly.”