Longtime downtown Modesto favorite closes. Now restaurant, all its recipes for sale
I moved to Modesto 23 years ago this week to start work at The Modesto Bee. And the first place I ate after pulling into town all those two decades and change ago was Harvest Moon.
It helped, of course, that the restaurant was across the street from my then office. Buoyed by positive recommendations from staff, I stopped by with my parents. I remember my meal was delicious. I’m pretty sure I had the crab sandwich — and I only say pretty sure because it is but one of many, many, many delicious meals I’ve eaten over the years at Harvest Moon.
But, as with all things, change has come to my sentimental downtown stalwart. Harvest Moon has closed and is now for sale by longtime owner Mark Smallwood.
The 64-year-old Modesto resident closed the restaurant “temporarily” at the start of August, but has now confirmed the downtown establishment is for sale. After 25 years running the restaurant, the first two as manager before taking over as owner, Smallwood is simply tired and ready to retire.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and now is the time,” Smallwood said. “It’s been 25 years and I’m so proud of it.”
Like everything in life these days, coronavirus played a part. Back in early March, Smallwood’s I Street restaurant was one of the first in the area to shut down its in-dining room service — as the governor had asked — to help slow the spread of COVID-19. He then closed down all together at the end of March when dining room closures went from recommended to mandatory, not even offering take-out service. Harvest Moon remained shut for six weeks to allow him and staff to self-quarantine safely.
COVID-19 made operating a challenge
The restaurant reopened for takeout only in early May, then for inside dining when the county was granted its variance by the state later that month. About that time he also received a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan, which he said he dutifully spent on bringing more than half a dozen of his staff back. And then, with the late June rollback of indoor service for restaurants, his team transitioned back to takeout.
But even back then in early March, before we knew just how bad and how long it would be, Smallwood’s words about the pandemic ring prescient.
“It’s going to get harder before it gets better,” Smallwood said, surveying his then empty restaurant. We’re still waiting for that better to come.
Yet for those of us paying attention, Smallwood has been eyeing the slower lane for a while now. Fans of The Moon saw the shift two years ago when in 2018 he transitioned his restaurant to breakfast, brunch and lunch — doing away with dinner service.
Since then we had hoped the crab sandwiches and the Neil’s Toss (a cult-favorite chicken salad named after Hall of Fame rocker Neil Young, whose song inspired the restaurant’s name) would still be with us for decades to come, albeit in an earlier time slot. And, if the right buyer comes along, it just might still be.
Smallwood is selling his restaurant — its name and all his equipment and recipes — for a very reasonable $60,000. He had what he thought was a done-deal with some local buyers for sale at the start of August when he closed down. But that fell through and now the eatery is again on the block.
“I don’t have the fire in my belly right now to develop an outside program. I don’t have the fire and what it takes anymore. It’s a young person’s business,” Smallwood said.
Cult-favorite menu items and bustling lunches
Over the years the restaurant’s loyal following has been developed with consistently good food and consistently big personalities. For the vast majority of its life, Harvest Moon had Smallwood and then wife/business partner Charlyne Friedman greeting guests and running the show from behind the check-in stand. The restaurant became known for its annual Mardi Gras celebration and as an always bustling lunch spot where you would likely run into at least one other person you knew, or wish you knew.
“The legs that business has had, I cannot believe the success it’s had,” he said. “It’s just a great life this little building brought me and my ex-wife. I couldn’t have done it without her.”
But it hasn’t been without its various bumps and bruises. In 2014 after the city of Modesto backed an underwhelming Grand-Prix superkart race through downtown that blocked access to several businesses including Harvest Moon, Smallwood filed a claim for damages with the city and eventually was paid out $500 for losses.
Then in the summer of 2016, Smallwood and his girlfriend (and dog) were lost after not returning from a three-day camping trip in Tuolumne County’s Sierra Nevada wilderness. They were all found healthy, if a little hungry, three days after they were set to return home after an extensive search for the missing restaurateur.
Since posting about putting the restaurant for sale, Smallwood said he has had a number of inquiries including at least half a dozen serious buyers. While he said he wouldn’t change anything about his quarter-century run downtown, he welcomes retirement. And he will miss all of his customers and all of the compliments about his food.
“I’ve had so many good relationships and so many good times with people over the years. I’ll miss that,” he said. “But I want to travel, I want to do things. I want to go camping and backpacking — but I won’t get lost again.”
Harvest Moon isn’t the first restaurant to close amid the pandemic. And, unfortunately it will not be the last. But with a little love and vision (not to mention capital), it could continue welcoming people to downtown Modesto for years to come. So maybe someone sometime in the not-too distant future could walk into Harvest Moon for the first time, too, and enjoy a meal that will last them a lifetime.
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
