New faces in old places: Restaurants open in downtown Modesto

It’s out with the old and in with the new for downtown Modesto restaurants, as the seemingly endless cycle of shifting dining spots continues.

Several more eateries opened this fall, filling spaces where previous restaurants had failed.

New owners are optimistic about success, though some of them had to spend $200,000 or more just to open their doors.

Most agree the restaurant business is tough downtown. Luring dinner crowds is particularly challenging, as a couple of the new venues already have discovered.

Mary Delgado owns 10 other Northern California restaurants, but she said attracting evening diners to her new El Jardin Restaurant on 10^th Street has been the toughest challenge she’s faced.

El Jardin opened Oct. 11, but it already has cut back dinner service from seven nights a week to just three – Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

“Our lunches are incredibly busy, so we almost don’t need dinners,” Delgado reasoned. She remains confident things will work out. “We wouldn’t have come downtown if we didn’t think we were going to succeed.”

El Jardin isn’t the first Mexican food restaurant to try to make a go of it at 959 10^th St. During the last decade or so, that spot has been home to La Taquiza, Taqueria Maria #3, La Patrona, and 5 de Mayo Mexican Restaurant.

Another new Mexican eatery recently opened around the corner, Rancho Fresco Mexican Grill at 1008 J St. That’s where the Paper Moon Café used to be, and Papachinos before that.

“This place was vacant for the last four years and in really bad shape,” said Ismael Covarrubias, Rancho Fresco’s owner. He had expected renovations there would cost $100,000 to $120,000, “but we spent close to $200,000” fixing the place up.

“We had to change all the plumbing. It was rotted out,” said Covarrubias, adding that the inefficient air conditioning system still needs to be replaced.

He, too, is learning on the fly what works and what doesn’t in the heart of Modesto. He said there are differences to what’s popular at his Crows Landing Road restaurant south of Modesto.

“There’s a line to the door every day for lunch, and our dinners are getting better … but I found out not a lot of people buy breakfast downtown,” said Covarrubias, who continues to keep the new Rancho Fresco open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and until 3 a.m. on weekends.

Another nearby restaurant also entered the dinner market this fall. Urbano California Bistro began serving lunches about a year ago, but it now stays open six nights a week.

“It’s starting to pick up a little bit,” said Noe Sanchez, who owns Urbano with his twin brother, Noel Sanchez. He said business was very slow during June, July and August, but he’s hopeful their newly acquired liquor license will help attract crowds.

Bar traffic apparently wasn’t enough to enable that 1016 H St. location’s previous tenants – Jax on H and Clayton’s – to succeed.

Like Delgado and Covarrubias, the Sanchez brothers have experience running restaurants elsewhere. They own Jacobs Fine Dining on McHenry Avenue in Modesto and Vintage Deli in Salida.

Noe Sanchez said one thing that makes downtown attractive to restaurant owners is its low lease rates. He said the cost to rent Urbano’s space is about half what it costs for Jacobs.

“The lease rates are definitely a bargain,” agreed Delgado, who signed a two-year lease. “It was a no-brainer opportunity to come in and try it.”

Rookie restaurant owners Jeff Brown and Blake Humble, who recently opened the Commonwealth gastropub downtown, don’t have to pay a lease. That’s because they bought the building for $367,500, according to property records.

Brown and Humble graduated from Beyer High in 1995, went to college, earned master’s degrees, used the Internet to launch a business, and then moved back to Modesto raise their families.

They like craft beers, and they decided 1022 11th St. would be the perfect place to open a pub that serves gourmet grub.

“Our conference business has helped fund this,” Humble said. He and Brown organize professional development conferences for businesses, staged at venues around the country. They run their company mostly from laptop computers, which they often use inside their 3-month-old pub.

Prior to becoming Commonweath, that spot was home to Extreme Pizza; before that it was India Oven, and before that it was Safari Deli.

Brown said launching their restaurant required replacing much of what had been there, including the plumbing.

“It was a crazy learning process,” Brown said of getting the restaurant ready to open. He considers all the work “pretty fun.”

So far, they say they’re pleased with the crowds the pub is attracting.

But maintaining long-term success downtown is tricky, cautioned veteran restaurateur Paul Tremayne. He has an ownership stake in five downtown eateries: Tresetti’s World Caffe, Concetta, Fuzio Universal Bistro, Piccolo Benni’s and Preservation Coffee & Tea.

“There are restaurants that make great food and don’t survive, and there are restaurants that make lousy food and do survive,” Tremayne said.

One of the biggest challenges is demographics.

“There are not enough people downtown for all the restaurants here already,” Tremayne explained. “The number of people working downtown has shrunk significantly (in recent years).”

Delgado sees things differently.

“The more the better. That’s my thinking on restaurants. More restaurants bring more life to an area,” Delgado said.

She and her husband, George, were just teenagers when they opened their first restaurant 35 years ago in Merced.

“Any location can be built into a great success. I really believe in restoring areas,” Delgado said. “We have to tell people downtown is a safe place to come at night and eat. I know our place in Modesto is going to fly.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2014 at 4:18 PM with the headline "New faces in old places: Restaurants open in downtown Modesto."