Well, we know what Drug Fair's going to be: a market/taquería. They did a lot of work real fast on the place and now they seem to have slowed down a bit. I imagine it'll be a fairly low-end, unintriguing grocery store, but I'm enthused by the possibility of easy, quick and authentic tacos right on Olive.

i juat ate at mr. sushi for like the 6th time, and i LOVE it. the prices are reasonable and the food is great. go mr. sushi! :-)

I was an employee there. It was sad even we the worker didn't know why the stored was gonna go out of business. it start from cutting the hours then day..so i had a feeling..so i got a new just in time. less than 2 weeks. DRUG FAIR WAS SHUTTING DOWN! I FEEL SORRY FER THE EMPLOYEE THAT HVNT FOUND A JOB YET..=( BUT FOR THE MOST PART I WAS GLAD TO SEE THE PHARMACY WORKER TO GO FIRST! THEY WERE RACIST ASS BITCHING PEOPLE! SO ITS THEIR KARMA LMAO!

Anyone have any jelled news on that Fresh and Easy? I would loooove not to have to drive across town to TJ's.

do you remember the french burger and the side dish that I think was the only cold slsw that I ever liked . It was different . Maybe a roqufort dressing or something . I still crave it and it has been over 35 years . I live North of the border now and would love it if yu could remember or have an idea who might know.

There are already 4 or 5 AAs in and around the Tower, and besides, neighborhoods go even further downhill when things like the County Health department, rehab, and other socio-medical services start taking over buildings.

Someone recently told me that the building that currently houses the Dollar Tree *WAS* going to be a Trader Joe's but that TJs pulled out. Is that true? Nothing wrong with being able to spend three bucks for a turkey baster, a packet of children's party napkins and canned stew, but TJs would have had a very positive effect on the neighborhood. I wonder if the story's true.

I still hope for more and better live music for the Tower. As it stands the Starline is woefully under-utilized and being able to see Warrant at the Tower Theatre pretty much doesn't count. It'd be nice to have two good venues in the neighborhood attracting out of town bands. Then again, even one would be nice.

I just hate Drug Rehab Centers.

Drug Fair/Lauck's Bakery lot is big enough for almost anything. I would love to see a Trader Joes there. Valley, Sounds like a Fresh and Easy or PCC Market would be nice as well. Ever notice how there's no 7-11's in downtown SF? But there's lots of mom n pops grocery stores. What's up with their zoning on that? Protecting the mom n Pops from the national chains I guess. Wish we could do that here.

I go into that Save Mart at Fruit and McKinley every once in a while (Save Mart's better than Albertsons or Vons) but I live closer to the one at Blackstone and McKinley so I usually go to that one. Neither can come close to the quality and value of The Joe. I too am curious to see what will happen to the Drug Fair building. I used to think a Longs Drugs would be nice there but after what happened to the one in Manchester I'm not so sure.

Without a market study to make my claims based on factual evidence, I do think that a grocery store would be very viable in the Tower. And not necessarily a supermarket, either. The chain Fresh and Easy (mother company UK-based Tesco, Europe's equivalent to Wal-Mart) is breaking into the grocery store market in Fresno with a few proposed stores, including one downtown. They are much smaller (around 10,000 sf., which is roughly the size of Trader Joes) and feature more fresh foods rather than processed and I believe some organic food. Something like this could be a possibility.

Now, I'm not selling Fresh and Easy yet for the Tower. First, anything with the word 'easy' in it makes me think convenience store, not cool grocery store. Also, it's hard for me to swallow that it's such a large chain. I haven't been in one, so I don't know how they operate or if they are truly concerned with fostering sustainability in their neighborhood. Ideally, I'd like to see something more locally based (a la PCC Markets in Seattle, Henry's in Southern California).

With the Drug Fair closing, that parcel is going to be up for grabs with many developers. I'm curious to see what will happen. If someone proposes a status quo strip mall/supermarket shopping center type thing, that is not going to go down very well.

Mixed-use, anyone?

How viable is a grocery store in the Tower? Smaller supermarkets tend not to have the best prices, and have reduced selection. It'd be nice to have one closer than the SaveMart at Fruit and McKinley. But that SM is a small one during a time when all new supermarkets are much larger, like the SM at Ashlan and West. I even keep worrying that the Fruit and McKinley location will end up closing because SM acquired the much-larger Albertson's at Clinton and Blackstone. The need for a good supermarket in the Tower is clear, but where can it viably go?

Too bad no one's done something useful with the old KMart at Olive and Golden State. That could be developed into a supermarket and since the parking lot is enormous, they could develop some of the streetside part of the lot into pads for other businesses. Could that work?

Correction, Mr. Sushi will open on March 9, Sunday.

I agree, Drug Fair would make a nice place for a live music venue. We definitely need more live music clubs in the Tower. I mentioned before on here about the old Cafe Midi on the corner of Fern & Maroa. Several months ago there were workers in there remodeling and they said it was going to be a night club. There was also a liquor license application on the front door but, nothing came of it. Wonder what happened to that. But, how about a grocery store? There was a grocery store in the Dollar store building for a couple years. A Trader Joes in the Tower would be cool, huh?

Drug Fair may have been filthy and disorganized, but it was the only place of its kind in the neighborhood. If Rite-Aid closes the Olive/Blackstone location in its oncoming spate of store closures, matters will get even worse. What the Tower DOES NOT need is another tattoo place or nail/hair salon. There's plenty already. It needs more restaurants and places to DO THINGS like listen to live music. Not more cover bands with old dudes in satin jackets who wear berets to cover up their bald spots–those have a place too–but real, interesting out of town bands. It really bumps me that Visalia can attract decent small-club stuff but Fresno at 4.5x the population can't. The Drug Fair building would be perfect for a club because it's got a big parking lot and is next to another big parking lot. That, and the fact that it's got better parking and fewer neighbors who might gripe than the building down Olive that used to house Ace Hardware make it a potentially attractive building for a night club for alternative acts that actually get some airplay on college radio and writeups on sites like Pitchfork. The Octopus Project from Austin, veterans of Coachella, played Visalia late last year but not here.

I had a dream about Mr. Sushi last night. Oh, that sounds a little weird, oh well. I remember walking in and it was this cool Japanese mafia hang out.

I'm looking forward to the grand opening. I'm curious to see how it stands up to my favorite sushi place, Oka. Oka's at Bullard and West, I probably won't stop going there for several reasons. 1. It tastes good and Dawn and Pam know how to make everything how I like it. 2. My wife and I have been going there since we started dating 6 years ago. 3. It is probably the only sushi joint is Fresno completely owned and operated by women.

However, there are times we crave sushi and don't feel like sushi. I hope those nights can be fulfilled by Mr. Sushi.

Kiel Famellos-Schmidt

The Grand opening is March 10.

Mr. Sushi should be open by the beginning of March. My understanding is that construction delays slowed them down. The owner used to work at Sushi Day at 1st & Nees. His sushi is top notch! I can't wait!

Any word on when the grand opening of Mr. Sushi is going to be now? I take it the Jan. 15th date didn't actually happen? So looking forward to this place!

THe Grand Opening of the Mr. Sushi is going to Be on January 15, 2008.

Last time I checked, there already is a rec center nearby (Wills) and there is a ton of open space (Fresno High, City, etc). But there's no place to buy groceries. This is not some personal need. Everyone has to eat once in a while.

The chains will not be frequented by the locals, so BWW or Hooters will not build in the Tower. Besides, we already have plenty of bars and restaurants. We need a place to get some advil and a box of cereal. Right now, the only place is Food King on Van Ness, but that guy is small (albeit very clean).

Ok so I have read all the above and am blown away by all the "wants" for this building. I don't even live in Fresno anymore and can tell you that when I frequent the Tower District I notice a lack of space for a younger generation to hang out. This usually contributes to teens loitering around finding some sort of trouble in one way or another. I may not have the best ideas, but I would think that a form of common place, (I.E. recreation center) would be awesome for the area. You could have things like computers for chatting and research etc, maybe a set of turn tables where they could come in a spin the latest whatever they like, or even an indoor skate ramp. We all know that if a constuctive thought process isn't utilized here, it will turn into another bar and grill or tattoo shop. Not that there is anything wrong with those places, (I love em) but is that what the area really needs? Far too often people brainstorm and put thier personal needs before that of the community. Can't we all just get along? Get together and come up with a plan instead of "shooting from the hip."

Let build a Hooters or Buffalo Wild Wings in its place. On the other hand if the city still wants Bass Pro Shops, there you go.

As you know the city wanted to place Bass Pro Shops downtown, the hot bed of the fishing and hunting area for the city....then again it would be a closer and more accessable place for the locals to get the ammunition.

Naw, I'd rather have Beer,Boobs & Wings than more ammo for my registered Glock.

Or they shop at the Save Mart on Clinton/Blackstone. But there should be something within walking distance. There is a need for it.

there was a Sushi place in the Tower once at 609 Olive location, I think it was called 'SUKAI'.

As for the grocery store in the Tower, I thought Tower people shop at the SaveMart at Fruit and Mckinley.

Tower Drugs SUCKED ASS!!!

SHIT quality products for twice the price they should be, filthy and disorganized, and a totally retarded staff.

ANYTHING in that building would be better.

kitty kitty bang bang...cha cha la la

sorry I am drunk He He

i wonder if it applies to booze. because, you know, fresno is 93rd out of 100 drunk cities.

as for our upcoming sushi joint, sushi places all have lame names.

roe, wasabi, naked fish, sushi and pop, etc. these names all suck in my opinion. but, i would say that i've enjoyed the sushi @ all of them except roe, and that's just because i haven't eaten there. and i also hope you're wrong about mr. sushi not being good, because i've been waiting for a full blown sushi place to come in.

you know what, i went to a sushi place up in berkeley and it was a hole in the wall with a generic name. but the sushi was good, and the prices were great. so bring it on, mr. sushi. i'll be quick to review and spread the word.

as for tower drug, i'm not too sad to see it go. i'm a big dork for the tower district, but still, i disliked that place. it always seemed dirty, and had such a random spectrum of junk that it didn't ever really encourage me to shop there. it's too bad that people won't have an easy spot to pay some of their bills, but i'm sure that someone else will pick up that one.

What the area needs is a basic grocery store and/or drug store. As someone who lives in the Tower, that's the one thing that I notice I miss.

Make that place into Trader Joes or something along those lines...

Diablo