A new burger joint has smashed its way into Fresno's Campus Pointe dining scene, and it comes with an unlikely pedigree: butter chicken on the same menu as birria smash burgers. Bull Smash Burgers is the latest venture from husband-and-wife team Goldie and Patty Bedi, who built the spot's country-themed dining room around a big bull statue at the entrance, branded wooden tables, and sports playing on TVs throughout.
The restaurant sits at 3039 E. Campus Pointe Drive, a storefront that previously housed the Korean fried chicken chain Bonchon, according to Hoodline's 2019 coverage of the shopping center. As reported by The Fresno Bee, Patty Bedi designed the decor herself, telling the paper, “This is my last rodeo, so let's just make it a rodeo.”
The Bedis, who live about 20 minutes from the restaurant, aren't newcomers to Fresno's food scene. The pair previously opened Bollywood Indian Street Food in Fresno and Twisted Indian Street Food in Lemoore, per the same Fresno Bee report. Mid Valley Times has traced their history further back, noting that they sold previous Fresno restaurants before opening Twisted Indian Street Food in Lemoore.
A Menu Built on Two Cultures
The restaurants feature Indian-Mexican-inspired dishes, including birria smash burgers and masala-filled burritos, according to Mid Valley Times. At Bull Smash Burgers specifically, the menu stretches from traditional smash patties to birria smash burgers and birria loaded fries, both made with birria Patty Bedi prepares herself, to butter chicken and paneer and veggie burgers, the Fresno Bee reports.
Goldie Bedi told the Bee he fell in love with smash burgers the first time he tried one and wanted to build a menu around food he genuinely loves to eat. The restaurant rounds things out with salads, hand-breaded chicken, pasta, specialty drinks, and appetizers like macaroni and cheese balls. “We tried to give everyone an option,” Goldie Bedi said, according to the outlet.
The cooking method itself is part of the draw. Smash burgers are made by pressing ground beef flat onto a high-temperature griddle, a technique that maximizes the Maillard reaction and produces deeply caramelized, crispy edges while sealing in the juices, according to Yaks on the 5. The style has become one of the hottest categories in American dining, with the National Restaurant Association naming smash burgers a top national menu trend heading into 2026 in a forecast reported by Restaurant Dive, citing strong demand for value-driven comfort food with customizable flavors.
Why Campus Pointe Made Sense
Goldie Bedi said the Campus Pointe location was a perfect fit, and the surrounding development explains why. The 45-acre development includes approximately 250,000 square feet of retail space and 540 apartments. That density puts Bull Smash Burgers within reach of Fresno State's campus community, which welcomed more than 6,600 new undergraduates for the 2025-2026 academic year on top of an enrollment of roughly 25,000 students, per the same source.
The neighboring Save Mart Center is another major venue nearby. The 18,000-capacity arena drew 481,435 total attendees across 37 non-sporting events in 2024, according to GV Wire. The Fresno Bee reports that the restaurant already attracts Fresno State students, movie theater patrons, families, and seniors from nearby communities, and that it hosts extended happy hours for Monday and Thursday night football along with discounts for seniors and other groups.
Running It as a Family Operation
Day to day, the Bedis split duties rather than stepping back once the doors opened. Patty Bedi manages the customer experience up front while Goldie Bedi moves between cooking in the back and checking in on the dining room, the Fresno Bee reports. “We don’t like to sit back and watch the employees take the burden,” Patty Bedi said, according to the outlet. Bull Smash Burgers is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., according to The Fresno Bee.
The restaurant has not yet held a formal grand opening, with Goldie Bedi still working out the details alongside the Fresno Chamber of Commerce, per the Fresno Bee. Looking ahead, he said he may open a couple more restaurants, though Patty Bedi does not share that same appetite for expansion, the outlet reports. For now, Goldie Bedi said the payoff is simpler than any future expansion plans: watching people enjoy the food feels like mission accomplished.
