■Bravo Farms’ owner Jonathan Van Ryn hopes to open the company’s newest restaurant in Visalia near the end of March.

■The restaurant combines quick-service eats downstairs and more formal dining upstairs.

■Restaurant will have a gift store, featuring Bravo Farms candies, nuts, and cheeses.

The owners of Bravo Farms are returning to the Visalia market with a new restaurant offering quick-service eats and formal dining.

On the bottom floor of the new Bravo Farms Visalia at 500 W. Main St., eaters will find the build-your-own salads and tri-tip sandwiches people grew to love at the company’s Tulare location, said owner Jonathan Van Ryn.

Up on the second floor, it gets a bit more formal. They’ve settled on the name Hayloft for that section.

“We’re a couple of weeks away now,” Van Ryn said. “Going to be similar to the Tulare location with the menu. We’re going to have an upstairs bar that’s probably going to be a little higher end — steaks, barbecue-type stuff upstairs.”

 

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New Restaurant in Former Citizens Business Bank

Van Ryn closed the Bravo Farms Smokehouse in 2019, selling it to the owners of Davorn’s Place.

“It was doing fine, but we just wanted to pursue other avenues,” Van Ryn said.

Shortly after closing, in 2020, Van Ryn found the location on Main Street, the former Citizens Business Bank.

The two-story, 11,000-square-foot location has better parking and more centralized access than the previous location, Van Ryn said.

Much like their Tulare location, the focus will be on salads and sandwiches. Diners will walk up to the counter, pick out their selection of toppings and their salad will be tossed right in front of them. They have a smoker out back for tri-tip and other smoked meats.

Diners can choose to eat there or take it to go. Televisions on the bottom floor will show sports.

The menu for upstairs still hasn’t been decided 100%, Van Ryn said. They will likely feature steaks, barbecue, and fish. Diners could order family-style sides at The Smokehouse. Van Ryn says they will probably bring that back.

Third Location for Bravo Farms

The return of the Visalia restaurant marks the fourth restaurant for the brand. Van Ryn’s father bought the Traver location 25 years ago. Following that, the family turned to Tulare, where they opened their restaurant at the outlet mall.

With his degree in cheesemaking, Van Ryn wanted to turn the Tulare location into a cheese shop. It ended up being more of a restaurant. And, while it had a slow start, it eventually turned into their busiest spot.

Nine years ago, they built their biggest location at Kettleman City.

The locations along Highway 99 get visitors up and down the Central Valley. But with its proximity to Interstate 5, the Kettleman City location gets visitors up and down the state.

“I would say probably two-thirds of our customers there are (from the) Bay Area or L.A.,” Van Ryn said.