Downtown Modesto’s experimental cocktail lounge wants to feed you. What’s on the menu?
Modesto’s most experimental bar (“Laboratories” is in its name and everything) is branching into another area of the culinary sciences — namely food.
Lo-Fi Laboratories, downtown Modesto’s artisan cocktail lounge, has started serving small plate dinners and soon will open its long-planned lunch/brunch spot in the vacant next-door restaurant on the corner of J and 14th streets.
Food has long been a part of Lo-Fi owner Lauren Jamieson’s life. She got her start cooking at downtown’s Harvest Moon before leaving for college in New Orleans where she also continued her chef work. The Modesto native opened the craft cocktail spot in the summer of 2019, but had only a few months of operation before the pandemic shut the bar down for more than a year.
Earlier this year, after the December closure of longtime small plates restaurant Concetta, Lo-Fi began to serve food with the help of former Concetta head chef Nathan Heese. Jamieson had asked Concetta owner Paul Tremayne if it was OK to poach Heese and some of his popular recipes for her bar. With his blessing, Heese began serving weekly small plate menus mid-February.
The rotating menu is, you guessed it, experimental. While there are a couple of staples, including the much-loved Concetta deviled eggs with shrimp on top, the rest is whatever looks good, is freshest and seems fun for the Modesto chef.
A Downey graduate who worked at Concetta the last two years, Heese has also cooked at other popular downtown spots like Skewers and Commonwealth. He has brought over some other Concetta favorites besides the deviled eggs, like the Brussels sprouts and pork scallopini.
But then, pretty much, he makes whatever else he feels like. He has had free reign over the next-door kitchen since he started.
“I wanted to be part of the experimenting and creativity here,” Heese said.
Each week he creates a new menu, which is served Wednesday to Saturday nights. You can find the offerings posted on the bar’s Instagram page most weeks. Much like the bar itself, which does not have an official sign, you kind of have to be in the know to find it.
But those who do will find everything from yellowtail sashimi and roasted cauliflower tacos to Duxelles pinwheels (mushrooms in pastry) and smoked salmon on cucumber crostinis. Each week’s menu has about eight items to choose from, including a dessert pick. The shared plates range from about $9 to $15 each.
When he started at Lo-Fi, Heese had the option to do regular dinners or small plates again, and decided to stick with the shareable dishes but make them change regularly.
“I think if you have a rotating menu it gets people excited about what is coming next,” he said.
Small plates with seasonal menus are also more sustainable and easier to source and supply, cutting out some of the issues restaurants have had since the pandemic with the cost and availability of certain foods. It’s a trend being embraced by more area restaurants, including nearby Chinn’s International which finished renovations and opened this January in the former Concetta space.
Lo-Fi’s own renovations of the adjoining restaurant have taken longer to complete. The new site has been in the works since the summer of 2021 when Chefs of New York moved from the corner spot to a larger space downtown on 13th Street before ultimately closing this year.
But the slow progress is paying off and Jamieson hopes to have her new restaurant open by early October.
The new eatery will be called Lo-Fi Soda Lab & Luncheonette and will start small. Jamieson will go back to her kitchen roots and cook the breakfast, brunch and lunch fare. Like with her cocktail lounge, do-it-yourself experimentation will be on full display.
Expect it to start with a limited menu and schedule, with brunch on Saturday and Sunday. She doesn’t have a timeframe for when the hours will expand yet. Like the Lo-Fi cocktail lounge, the restaurant will have murals by local artists on the walls and other eclectic touches.
Just as the bar side makes all of its own juices, syrups, mixers and garnishes, the restaurant will make its own sauces and even sweet confections like marshmallow and chocolate syrup. You can expect to see breakfast favorites, like French toast, but with a twist of an unusual filling or topping.
And Jamieson said they’ll work their way up to making their own sodas too, as the name suggests.
“I’ll be experimenting with flavor combinations and things like that,” she said. “I don’t ever have a set plan in mind. I kind of let things happen.”
Lo-Fi Laboratories, at 1323 J St. in Modesto, is open for food 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday (bar is open Tuesday to Saturday). For more information visit loficocktails.com or www.instagram.com/loficocktails.
This story was originally published September 18, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
