Popular Modesto restaurant, events business expanding into downtown Oakdale building
You have hands-off owners, hands-on owners and Bob Campana.
The former successful pool contractor and now successful restaurateur has turned his north Modesto Redwood Cafe and Redwood Events into one of the area’s premier destinations thanks to his attention to detail. Now he is turning his meticulous eye to Oakdale for a second location for his restaurant and events business.
The downtown location in The Reata building on Third Street is being renovated into a full-service restaurant with a large bar, banquet room, private dining rooms and outdoor patio. The restaurant will carry the Redwood Cafe name and most of its menu, Campana said.
After a tough year-plus struggling through the pandemic and its associated safety closures, opening another restaurant was the last thing on his mind. Redwood Cafe has closed four times since the COVID-19 outbreak began, remaining shuttered for four to five months total last year. His event center (formerly known as Vintage Gardens) canceled 80 weddings when the stay-at-home order started in March 2020.
“I was just thinking about surviving, not expanding,” said Campana who launched his events business in 1994 and Redwood Cafe in 2012.
Campana said he wouldn’t have even considered a second location, except his friends and The Reata owners John and Ann Maddox approached him last November with an offer — the kind he joked he couldn’t refuse. The Maddoxes’ wedding and events business in The Reata had closed at the start of the pandemic. So they had a beautiful 70-year-old brick building without a tenant.
“When COVID started and everything shut down, I thought I’m not creative enough to think about what the next step should be,” John Maddox said. “But I’ve known Bob for a long time, and just called him up.”
Local entrepreneurs partner for Oakdale restaurant
Campana and the Maddoxes, who also own the majority of the area’s Mountain Mike’s franchises, are now partners in the Oakdale business. The Reata went through many incarnations in its past, including an old Dodge dealership and the defunct Oakdale Brewing Co. before becoming an event center.
Now Campana is in the midst of a $750,000 renovation to the building that includes enclosing the front courtyard and transforming it into an airy bar, creating a large banquet hall, and sprucing up its inviting patio. He hopes to open the new Oakdale site by July 1.
His core management team — including executive chef, general manager and events planner — will all work with him at the Oakdale location as well. Campana said he was grateful he was able to keep his team together through the COVID shutdowns. He expects to hire about 50 workers to staff the new restaurant, about the same size as his Modesto crew.
The Oakdale restaurant will be a little smaller than the Modesto site, with seating for about 130 compared to the original’s 200. The banquet room was carved out from the site’s previous event space and can seat about 150. The back patio can seat another 75 or so.
Like the Modesto site, Campana said the Oakdale Redwood Cafe will be a wine-centric restaurant with specialty cocktails. But to appeal to the Oakdale crowd, he plans to add more steaks to the menu, a nod to the town’s farming and ranching roots. Also expect more cowboy motifs, and a sign that typifies the brand’s upscale yet casual atmosphere that will read, “Dusty boots welcome.”
Also like the Modesto restaurant, Campana wants the Oakdale location to be an escape for diners. That’s where his eye for detail comes in strong. He hired a Gallo Center for the Arts lighting specialist to design the dramatic lighting for the banquet room. Campana has also created separate private dining rooms, including a chef’s table.
Almost all of the restaurant’s decor will be custom-made, with heavy accents of wood and steel all created to order or fabricated from ideas Campana saw and wanted recreate with his own spin. He has even sat at each table to make sure the lighting is just right in every spot.
He said he does this because he knows the Redwood Cafe is considered a “special occasion” restaurant for many, and wants to create memory moments for people that build goodwill and word of mouth. As Stanislaus County and the country come out of the pandemic, he said people deserve a special place to treat themselves.
“I think right now and after COVID people want to reward themselves,” he said. “One of the rewards most people can afford is a nice dinner and a nice glass of wine or cocktail. This is going to be a very nice restaurant.”
This story was originally published May 30, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
