Adrian and Ernie Perez didn't have culinary training when they took over a shuttered building off Highway 99 outside Kingsburg in the summer of 2014. What they had was a risk they were willing to take and a name, Roadhouse, for the burger and craft beer spot they built out of a place that had closed just months earlier. For eight years, that's where it stayed: a highway pull-off, the kind of stop you made on your way to somewhere else.
Then Roadhouse moved. Not out of business, not to a bigger highway lot with easier parking, but into downtown Kingsburg, onto Smith Street near Draper, where the Perez brothers rebuilt it as Roadhouse 99 with a full bar and craft cocktails. Adrian explained the move to ABC30's Dine and Dish in terms that double as a short history of the town itself: for a long time, if you wanted a nice meal in Kingsburg, you left. Kingsburg was too small, he said, and everything closed early. You'd drive to Fresno. You'd drive to Visalia.
That's no longer the case, he told them.
One restaurant relocating six blocks doesn't sound like news. But it's the clearest physical evidence of something the city has been building on purpose for years, and understanding it changes how you read Kingsburg's calendar this fall, now that the two events that usually draw the crowds have already come and gone for the year.
The City Has a Name for What Roadhouse Did
Kingsburg's economic development office runs a program called the Destination Dining Cluster to promote locally owned restaurants.
On the city's own site, Economic Development Coordinator Jolene Polyack named several local restaurants as examples of the dining cluster:
- Jonathan's
- Deli Casa
- The Dala Horse Café
- Corsaro's Family Pizza
- Royal & Ancient Grill
By the city's own count, that cluster now runs 27 locally owned and operated restaurants inside a town of a few square miles. Roadhouse 99's move from the highway shoulder into that cluster is one example of the downtown dining shift.
What Used to Fill the After-Dark Hours
For generations, the town’s summer evenings have included a free gathering under the stars.
The Kingsburg City Band has been playing Thursday nights in Memorial Park since 1887, which makes it one of the oldest community bands still operating in the country. A Swedish cornet player named Mr. Claus led the first 14 musicians at the railway platform that year. Today the band runs closer to 60 or 70 members a week, still free, still under the stars, paired most summers with a farmers market that opens at 5 p.m. ahead of the 8 p.m. downbeat.
That pairing runs for roughly six weeks each summer, typically starting in mid-June, which means it has already closed out for the year by the time September rolls around. So has the Swedish Festival, which hit its 60th anniversary this past May with a parade, a smorgasbord, and an ABBA tribute under the stars downtown. Both events are the ones visitors plan trips around. Neither one is happening this month.
Once the band season and festival have ended, fall offers a different view of downtown Kingsburg on an ordinary weekday.
September Runs on a Different Clock
As fall begins, football becomes one of the town’s main reasons to gather.
Kingsburg High's Vikings opened their season on August 21 with a 29-12 win over Arroyo Grande, then dropped a 0-10 decision to Redwood in the final week of August. The team hosted Central Valley Christian at home on September 4, and the next matchup, against El Diamante, kicks off Thursday, September 10, at 7:30 p.m.
Friday night football has always pulled families to Memorial Park's neighbor, Kingsburg High. Before kickoff or after the final whistle, a visit can include a table at Roadhouse 99, Jonathan's, or another restaurant in the city's dining cluster.
An Evening Walk Downtown
Fall is a good time to visit Kingsburg's most photographed landmark, a downtown park.
The Swedish Coffee Pot Water Tower sits in what most residents call Teapot Park, a small downtown green space off Draper Street next to the fire department. The 60,000-gallon tank lights up at night and shares the block with the Historic Kingsburg Jail, a leftover piece of the town's early law-and-order history that now mostly serves as a backdrop for the story boards nearby. It's an easy loop on a mild September evening, shade in the middle of the day, cooler air once the sun drops.
After taking in the park and tower, visitors can continue the evening with a meal at one of the restaurants in the Destination Dining Cluster.
The Next Time the Town Does This on Purpose
Kingsburg isn't finished engineering reasons to be downtown after dark this year. The next one arrives in December, when the town lights its Christmas Village along Draper Street and marks Santa Lucia Day, traditionally the first Saturday of the month, with the oldest daughter of a household crowned in a white gown and candlelit crown, singing her family awake with saffron buns and coffee. It's a tradition the town's Swedish Village adopted outright, and like the festival and the concert series before it, it's built specifically to draw people downtown once it's dark outside.
Between now and then, the town's calendar is quieter: no parade, no ABBA tribute. Roadhouse 99's move off the highway remains one visible marker of the change along downtown Kingsburg.
If you've lived in Kingsburg long enough to remember driving to Fresno for dinner, this fall offers a different way to experience the town. The festival and concert series are seasonal, while the downtown dining cluster offers another option for a weeknight out.
If you're weighing a move to Kingsburg, or thinking about what your own Draper Street routine might look like once you're not just visiting, the team at Iron Key Real Estate knows this town block by block and can walk you through what living here actually feels like, long after the festival crowds go home.
