Expect fresh-made everything as Turlock favorite opens new Modesto restaurant
Two and a half years, one pandemic and seemingly endless delays later, Memo’s Cocina & Tequila Bar has opened in Modesto.
What started as a weed-filled lot is now the shiny, new second location for the successful contemporary Mexican restaurant, and a testament to the business’s “make it from scratch” mantra. Second-generation restaurateurs and husband-and-wife owners Guillermo and Karina Ramirez opened their original downtown Turlock Memo’s in 2014.
Plans for the expansion were first announced in September 2019, and they had hoped for a summer 2020 opening. But then, the pandemic struck as did its accompanying shortages and setbacks.
Still the Ramirezes remained determined to bring their vision for a modern, from-scratch Mexican cuisine and craft tequila and mezcal cocktail bar to Modesto. And after more than a year delay they opened last week despite still waiting on some key bar equipment.
“After all that, it was worth the wait,” said Karina Ramirez. “I feel like it was a dream come true. We’ve worked so hard. My father-in-law and mother-in-law started as dishwashers. We’re happy to have the opportunity to build from the ground up.”
That ground-up attitude started with Guillermo Ramirez’s parents, who opened their first Las Casuelas Mexican restaurant in 2005 and now have four in the region. The original Turlock and new Modesto Memo’s restaurants are named after the nickname for Guillermo, a name shared by Guillermo Ramirez’s father and son.
Karina Ramirez said building from scratch for their second location allowed them to modernize the look, and add a large patio and banquet room that can fit about 100. The new 8,500-square-foot building sits at the corner of Sylvan Avenue at Forest Glenn Drive, across from the skate park and near Beyer High.
Inside, while the dining room space is approximately the same size as its Turlock location, and can fit about 120 people, the scope of the project becomes clear as you see the 24-foot main dining area ceiling and the massive glass window wall behind the bar.
The new restaurant also has several touches fans of the Main Street Turlock restaurant will recognize, including the wall of decorative tequila barrels and metalwork representing agave leaves, the plant both tequila and mezcal are made from.
The food will also be similar — in fact, the menu is exactly the same. The kitchen makes everything, including its tortillas, salsas, sauces and dressings. They’ll even make it from scratch right in front of you when it comes to the guacamole and salsa de molcajete, which are prepared tableside so guests can customize to taste. The large menu features lunch entrees ranging from about $12 to $15 and dinner choices around $15 to $18.
“Some people are used to the valley and American Mexican food, so they feel like what we serve isn’t authentic,” she said. “But in Mexico restaurants always make things from scratch.”
That from-scratch attitude applies to the restaurant’s new 100-foot bar as well. The cantina carries more than 100 varieties of pure agave tequila, as well as about 20 varieties of mezcal — tequila’s smokier cousin. Memo’s is the first craft tequila bar to open in town, debuting before another planned Mexican restaurant and tequila bar in downtown Modesto.
Cocktails are mixed using in-house syrups made from agave syrup instead of sugar. Fresh fruit lines the bar because it’s used in various drinks. And bartenders are very familiar with muddling, mashing fresh ingredients to bring out their flavor.
And the Ramirezes are still waiting on their bar equipment, which they ordered last June and now has a tentative mid-March arrival date. But as with everything, they hope people understand the delay and that sometimes good things take a little longer.
“I hope that people think everything was worth the time,” Karina said. “We felt like Modesto needed something like this.”
Memo’s Cocina & Tequila Bar, at 1433 Sylvan Ave. in Modesto, is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday to Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday to Friday and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday. For more information call 209-526-7149 or visit www.memoscocina.com.
This story was originally published February 28, 2022 at 6:15 AM.
