Dine and Dish: Roadhouse 99 in downtown Kingsburg

KINGSBURG, Calif. (KFSN) -- Some restaurant owners love to show their hometown pride.

Roadhouse 99 on Smith near Draper in downtown Kingsburg is helping change perceptions about this small city with the Swedish theme.

Owners and brothers, Ernie and Adrian Perez, got started in the food industry when they were barely in their 20s.

Now with Roadhouse 99, they've created a new vibe in town with delicious dishes and craft cocktails.

"For a long time, you would leave to go have a nice meal, right? You'd go to Fresno, you'd go to Visalia because Kingsburg was too small and everything closed early," explained Adrian.

That's no longer the case.

Dishes like the New York steak sandwich have been a hit for the Perez brothers.

"We're taking a New York strip, prepping it ourselves. Topped with grilled mushrooms and onions. We make our own garlic aioli sauce and we put it on a Basque roll," said Ernie.

Ernie says the house chips seem to be more popular than the fries.

This is a place where you can grab a burger called "Get Figgy With It."

"That was a crazy concoction by my brother there," Ernie said.

"So, it's a half-pound burger patty, pork belly, blue cheese crumble, fig jam, and balsamic production sauce," said Adrian.

The brothers' creativity is on full display with their pork belly bites. They're sliced and smoked.

"After pulling it out of the fryer, we sit it on a little bit of cole slaw with a little bit of housemade honey siracha sauce and siracha mayo that we make ourselves," explained Ernie.

Ernie and Adrian had a small eatery along Highway 99 for eight years before moving downtown.

Customers couldn't wait for this place to open in August.

"Yeah, it's a small town so anything new, obviously everyone's on it," said Jared Murray, a customer.

"We wanted to keep that same kind of vibe and make it very family-friendly. But we also wanted to add something that wasn't around so we added the craft cocktails," Adrian said.

"We're known for our old fashioneds. They're very tasty."

They also feature a large ice cube with the restaurant logo.

"If you want to go super healthy we have the salad here, with a little chicken of course," Ernie said.

"Right now, we're using local strawberries from right down the road from Fry's Strawberry Stand."

"Our Brussel sprouts are very popular. Flash-fried with bacon, dried cranberries, and blue cheese crumble," said Adrian.

With its modern take on food and cocktails, Roadhouse 99 offers a toast to Kingsburg.

People loved that pork belly so much that the Perez brothers started putting it into different dishes.