Belmont Inn served Armenian, American dishes

Question: What is the history of the Belmont Inn that was on the northeast corner of Belmont and Cedar avenues? I recall attending wedding receptions there in the 1950s.

– A. Gougasian, Clovis

Answer: The Belmont Inn and Motel was built in about 1946 by Dr. Doris Hicks Wilson and Burt Wilson. George Ehikian bought the property at 4225 E. Belmont Ave. for $175,000 in 1948.

Ehikian, a native of Armenia, came to Fresno in 1906 and worked on grape ranches and for markets in the Fresno area. He owned the Crystal Palace Market at 1476 N. Van Ness Ave. and retired in 1943.

When he bought the Belmont Inn, Ehikian announced plans to remodel the building, which included a cocktail lounge, dining room, coffee shop, banquet rooms and motel with 25 “guest apartments,” according to Bee files.

Ehikian hired chef Ruben Baboyan, who had retired after working for 23 years at the downtown Hotel Fresno. The Belmont Inn’s menu featured Armenian and American dishes.

Ehikian sold the cocktail lounge business in 1962 but continued to operate the inn. According to Fresno city directories, the inn was vacant by 1964 and a gas station was located there by 1965. Ehikian died in 1983.

Q: I remember buying barbecued turkeys from Degelman’s farms years ago. What happened to the business?

– Ann Semar, Fresno

A: Claude F. Degelman Sr. raised turkeys and ran a catering business on Shaw Avenue west of Fresno for 56 years.

Born in the early 1900s, Degelman moved to Fresno during World War I and graduated from Fresno High School.

Degelman started Degelman’s Poultry and Food on a 20-acre fig orchard at 2550 W. Shaw Ave. in about 1944. He raised 3,000 turkeys in the first year. Degelman soon built a processing plant and refrigerated room, and sold the dressed turkeys at the ranch.

In 1955, Degelman opened a barbecue business on the ranch. A “glass enclosed barbecue machine” could cook 35 whole chickens in about one hour, according to a Bee story. He also barbecued “midget turkeys.”

The chickens and turkeys were cooked on order. Take-out dinners might include “a chicken wrapped in aluminum foil, French fried potatoes, choice of five salads, homemade pie and a cube of ice cream.”

Degelman sold the ranch in 1965 and retired. He died in 1974.

More on Bruce’s Lodge

After the answer to a question about Bruce’s Lodge ran on Nov. 15, Gene Bruce of Selma, stepson of Rocco Bruce, one of the brothers who owned Bruce’s, sent an e-mail and photos about the restaurant with the iconic airplane on its roof.

“It was a grand restaurant at the time and a lot of people in the Valley have many fond memories there, as I do,” wrote Bruce, who worked at the family’s restaurant in Fowler, which burned down in 1973.

Bruce’s aunt, Betty, and her husband, Dan Vukson, owned another popular restaurant, The Outpost in Fresno, which closed in 1997.

“It is a shame that we do not have these kind of places to frequent any longer, where the owners, waitresses and bartenders knew your name, what you drank and how you liked your food prepared,” Bruce wrote. “Long live red-covered booths, white tablecloths and dark wood paneling.”

By Paula Lloyd / The Fresno Bee