New Southern California based Mexican-Asian fusion restaurant set for downtown Modesto
Sometimes you like a restaurant so much, you decide to open your own location just so you can eat there more often.
Such is the case of Ginn Sanghera, who with two friends is opening a new Modesto location for Long Beach-based fusion restaurant Mexihanas Hibachi Grill. The restaurant blends Mexican and Japanese flavors and serves up teppanyaki-style food with a twist.
The new eatery is opening in a prominent but vacant downtown Modesto location on J Street, just off the corner of Ninth Street. The space, which was home to Seta’s Secret salon and other shorter-lived businesses before falling vacant a few years ago, will now serve up overflowing noodle bowls and other delicacies.
Sanghera, a first-time restaurateur, had tried the original Mexihanas Hibachi Grill in Long Beach. The concept’s founder, Martin Luzanilla, started the restaurant in his driveway after his work as a tow-truck driver dried up at the beginning of the pandemic. Now his third location is coming to Huntington Beach.
Sanghera liked the food so much, he and friends and business partners Rick Cook and Sam Tack decided to reach out to license the name and open their own location in the Central Valley.
“Essentially, I consider myself a foodie. Me and my family drive to eat stuff. I just got tired of driving to (Southern California) to eat it,” Sanghera said. “So I met the owner and we started talking. One of my friends (who is now a co-owner) happened to know him, so we went up together to make a deal.”
The Modesto location, the only site for the restaurant outside of Southern California, is set to open by the end of October. Sanghera said they wanted to find a good location with foot traffic that could cater to both the workday lunch crowd and late-night bar hoppers.
The menu includes hibachi-grilled proteins from chicken and Angus steak to shrimp and lobster tail, plus traditional garlic noodles and fried rice. They also serve noodle-and-meat stuffed burritos, Wagyu tacos and other specialties.
For their first restaurant, Sanghera and his co-owners said things have gone relatively smoothly as they converted the previously vacant space into a 2,000-square-foot dining room and commercial kitchen. But, as with almost all things construction these days, a supply chain issue has slowed their opening.
Sanghera said everything is essentially ready to open, but a controller for their lighting system is delayed and has kept them from opening their doors. Once that arrives, they expect to hire about 15 to staff the restaurant. Expect late-night hours on Friday and Saturday nights to appeal to the bar crowd.
The business partners are betting that the restaurant’s signature bowls and plates will be as popular in the Northern San Joaquin Valley as they are in SoCal.
“We wanted to be able to utilize a lot of the daily work traffic, and also at the same time there’s not many options for the after hours nightlife. So we want to do both,” Sanghera said.
For more information on Mexihanas Hibachi Grill visit www.instagram.com/mexihanashibachigrill.
This story was originally published September 26, 2022 at 6:30 AM.
