Which Type of Weekend Are You?
The Downtown Modesto Weekend Guide | Labor Day ‘23 Edition
Labor Day weekend is here, and we hope that means it’s a three-day weekend for you. But even if you have limited precious free time to spare, it’s the perfect time to soak in the cooling weather. As of this writing, the forecast is hovering around the lowest of the 80s F.
If you’ve been in Modesto for any number of years, you know the pure glee we all feel when looking toward a California cool-down. It’s a whole entire personality. And because it’s so nice, you don’t even need a vacation house! You can stay in Modesto and enjoy the full spectrum of your very own downtown’s abundant offerings.
But what to do? We've got you covered, no matter where you land on the vibe spectrum over the next week.
Whether your style is giving “cozy-hermit-seeks-solitude” or you’re a crowd connoisseur who feeds off the city's energy, we have a guide for you.
The Curious Culture Hound
Your book/record/art collection screams “2020’s renaissance aesthete” but your outfit whispers, “Don’t mind me—I’m just here as a sponge, sopping up the sights and sounds.”
Friday Night
Live indie jazz with world-touring Alabaster DePlume and Best Move. Off The Air is an indie music series that partners with DoMo Partnership and Modesto DID to bring local and touring acts downtown to gracious and beautiful venues. The shows are always a must for indie music enthusiasts who have an innate knack for staying attuned to emerging artistic expressions.
But this particular show is something special. Alabaster DePlume is playing at The Getty in Los Angeles one night, The Chapel in San Francisco the following night, and then downtown Modesto the night after that. DePlume is a saxophonist, a spoken word poet, an activist, an arranger, and a Londonite, described by Pitchfork Magazine like this: “The Mancunian saxophonist and poet’s warm and wise album is a balm of spoken word and spiritual jazz, both strangely uncomfortable and strangely comforting.”
Alabaster DePlume, English jazz musician, saxophonist, spoken word poet, composer, and activist plays Modesto, CA Sept 1, 8 pm, ALL AGES, Greens on Tenth
It is going to be an avante-garde night to surrender to. But it’s the space where this show takes place that is the cherry on top. Hidden underneath Greens on Tenth, a large and luxurious event space on 10th St. is an unassuming speakeasy-style venue that will serve cold, tasty drinks, although the show is all-ages and welcoming. Tickets are $25 at the door ($20 in advance). Purchase advance tickets here:
Greens On Tenth looks like this.
Enter through the glass doors and go downstairs, to your right, to the speakeasy.
Please note that 10th Street will be abuzz with the activity of DoMo First Fridays, a community street festival that celebrates local artists, vintage goods pirates, hip hop and breakdance culture, salsa dancing in the streets, and much more. You might scope it out. But if you’re not in the mood, just park a few blocks down, get into your stride while following the sound of festivities, and then spot Greens on Tenth in the middle of the block on 10th between I and J Streets. Time to sneak downstairs into a completely different atmosphere that feels nothing like a festival at all. Trust us. It will be like putting on earmuffs made of chocolate cake and your favorite books all rolled into one.
DoMo First Fridays. Learn more here
The Nature Lover: Romanticizing Your Life with Trees and Breeze
If your eyes landed here, this is your sign to romanticize your life. Whether you MUST have a dose of Mother Nature every day or you’ve simply been couped up, here’s how to put a little romance into your downtown dilly-dally.
Saturday
Located in downtown’s adjacent College Area neighborhood, the historic 116-year-old Graceada Park invites you to lounge, picnic, pickle ball, and play under its giant shade trees. About a ten-minute walk from the center of downtown, the park was named after two women, Grace and Ada, and was designed by the preeminent landscape designer west of the Mississippi at the time to simulate natural groves of trees. It is easy to pick out the original trees because they’re HUGE and grouped together.
We recommend stopping at Vino Concetta to pick up a bottle of Grace and Ada grenache blanc, a refreshing wine also named after Grace Beard and Ada Wisecarver.
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Location: 1209 J Street, downtown Modesto
Hours usually vary, but we got insider info that owner Paul Tremayne will be selling wine and has this in stock. Save this number to call/text to connect with Vino Concetta:
(209) 303-0503
Name sound familiar? You must be familiar with Concetta, a downtown tapas eatery that was a favorite staple of downtown for decades! It’s closed now, but the wine shop is still rocking and rolling.
To really do it up, make a pit stop on 16th Street between I and J Streets at Fleur De Lis to pick up pretty linen napkins, a picnic blanket, French glassware, or even a special little bowl perfect for picnic olives. Then, right next door, have Mocha Magic fill a little pastry box with European pastries for you. Our staff is wild about the cannolis.
The Self-Care Creature
Has it been a week? Check the tension in your shoulders, in your jaw, in your neck. Doing okay? If you had the fleeting thought, “I wish someone would take care of ME for a day,” here’s your medicine:
Saturday Morning
Pilates at the Music Garden: Get invigorated, get energized, and get in SHAPE with Studio V Pilates on the first Saturday of every month this summer! What a wonderful way to have fun and enjoy great company in the Modesto Rotary Music Garden.
$15 suggested donation per person per class. Proceeds benefit the Gallo Center.
Book online at Studio V's website.
Modesto Rotary Music Garden
1000 I St, Modesto, CA
9:00 am - 9:45 am
Saturday
Brunch
Right down I Street is Harvest Moon, a cozy eatery named after the Neil Young ballad and home to the Neil’s Toss, a refreshing salad dressed with a creamy lime dressing that tastes bright and cuts perfectly against indulgent bleu cheese, chicken, and bacon crumbles. And mimosas? By the pitcher. With friends? Buy the pitcher.
Saturday Afternoon Clay Play
DON’T 🚫 park your car in the sun at a big box store and spend money on house décor that only one gazillion other people also own. That is not even high-quality shopping therapy. DO 🟢 upgrade your mental health, cognitive function, sense of pleasure, and well-being by working your hands into earthy clay to turn into authentic art.
Whether you’re learning wheel throwing (think Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in Ghost) or pinching pots (think middle school art class, sans erratic hormones), Chartreuse Muse will escort you through a playful day. And there’s nothing like being in a state of play to keep your mind in the present moment, right where it belongs on a relaxing weekend.
Find extraordinary art, gifts, and workshops at Chartreuse Muse at 918 10th Street.
Cottage Core Tomato Girl…IYKYK
But if you don’t, downtown Modesto is the perfect place to discover it. Modestans are not the type to gatekeep trends. Our locale is perfectly situated to live your sun-kissed, farm-to-fork, homestead-dappling, fougasse-shaping dreams. Here’s how to cook it up like a local cottage-core tomato girl.
Friday Night
It’s just you, your best tote, and your lightest cotton end-of-summer ‘fit. Let’s go to DoMo First Fridays. Get there early (starts at 6) and stick around while the sun is still out to sufficiently blush your cheeks, peruse the vendors and street food, and cheer on the bravest-of-brave dancers who get the party started in the street.
Once you are warmed to the core like a summer tomato on the vine, bring that glow up J Street to Galletto Ristorante to get a taste of fresh, seasonal dishes. Ask your server what the chef recommends. TIP: Tell them the Back of House Food Tour sent you, and you want that inside scoop!
The climate in Modesto is so similar to Italy’s, your imagination doesn’t have to work hard here to whisk you away on a Roman holiday. Just ask the Gallo Family why the biggest wine company in the world is rooted in Modesto! (Answer: It’s the Mediterranean-like climate!)
You may wind up with a Caprese dish using tomatoes that were actually on the vine just hours before! It’s that fresh and decadent at Galletto. Don’t forget to order an Aperol spritz as an aperitivo to open your palate.
S a t u r d a y
Block the whole morning and afternoon out because you’re going to use it all, starting at Modesto Certified Farmers Market.
We talked to Emily Cowdrey, Resident Chef at Modesto Certified Farmers Market and Culinary Instructor for Career Technical Education Courses in Riverbank Unified School District, and got tips on how to perfect the tomato girl vibe like a pro:
“It’s a perfect time to shop local farms and watch the produce grace local restaurant menus. It’s cucumber time, fig time, tomato time, and even grapes are coming out for crush season. Restaurants are doing really interesting things with varieties of Asian cucumbers and, of course, tomatoes like no tomorrow!”
Emily Cowdrey, Modesto Certified Farmers Market Resident Chef
In fact, downtown resident, cottage bakery owner, and bestselling cookbook author Bonnie Ohara recently posted a celebration of tomato truck after tomato truck heading into Stanislaus Tomatoes at the end of her street, just on the edge of downtown, to become the best tomato sauce in the world.
“My neighborhood will be filled with spaghetti-scented steam for about a month.”
Ohara has been cooking up strong cottage core and tomato girl energy for years before it was given a catchy name on TikTok.
Photo: @MarylinDays
Next door to the Farmers Market is the historic Stanislaus County Library. See if you’re lucky enough to check out Bonnie Ohara’s book, Breadbaking for Beginners. Not yet in the library is the soon-to-be-released Let’s Bake Bread! A Family Cookbook to Foster Learning, Curiosity and Skill Building In Your Kids.
Better yet, support this downtown Modesto author and purchase her books, bread, and cooking classes here: http://www.alchemybread.com/shop
Follow @alchemybread
Saturday
Afternoon
For your finale, sling your Farmers Market goodies over to Good Day Lucille, a breakfast and lunch eatery whose entire love language is fresh, thoughtful craft. But hurry! They close at 3 pm. Their pink chai is divine, and you can’t go wrong with a rosé and the Freshy Fresh, a dish that is gorgeous with very thinly sliced radishes that blush in every romantic hue, pink pickled onions, peppery arugula, bright and creamy goat cheese, avocado, and chili crunch on true sourdough bread drizzled with impeccable olive oil. We have enjoyed this sandwich. A few times. Maybe more. Can you tell?
The Budget Bourdain
The Boardroom, 1528 J Street
If you’re reading this and you’re not currently sitting on a plane pointed at some exotic destination, do not think for one second that an alluring experience fit for King Anthony Bourdain is out of reach. You can experience parts unknown even without a passport or a pile of money right here in downtown Modesto.
The fertile Central Valley cradles downtown Modesto.
We live and thrive among such abundance in agriculture and history. At downtown eateries, our forks drip with food drawn from our cross-cultural inclusiveness and the city’s DNA.
But if there’s one thing about Modesto, it’s our overactive collective modesty. It’s in the name. So, who’s going to stand up and tell these rich stories about how the food that’s on our plates is a direct result of immigration, world war, technological advancements, art, family legacy, prohibition, travel, talent, luck, backbreaking work, and more? The new Back of House food tours of downtown Modesto is up to the task!
Take a guided walking food tour. All the big cities have them, and downtown Modesto is no exception, baby!
Sara Lowry-Dominguez has guided scores of adventurers through a fantastic time on Back of House Tours.
Restaurants that have partnered with Back of House Tours are pioneering a movement to celebrate how we eat GOOD around here, and owners, chefs, and back-of-house staff have given the tour guide permission to share stories on their behalf to tell the tales of what’s cooking and why.
For $75, you’ll eat at four restaurants and be regaled for three hours by the specialized and friendly host.
Bauers 209 chef heats it up: 822 9th St. Modesto, CA
If a guided tour isn’t your jam, mix and match your Bourdain-like downtown Modesto excursion on your own.
This is Tye Bauer.
He’s the chef’s chef. You cookin’? You’re probably running it by Tye. And, at Bauhaus, the front of the house IS the back of the house.
405 Downey Ave, Modesto, CA
Check out downtown’s alley art scene (Mural Alley—DoMo Walls), dine on tin fish and bone marrow at Bauhaus like a carnivorous cool cat, pop into a dark bar to enjoy some good-natured eavesdropping, and see where the wind blows. When you’ve got a wild streak in you (which is why you’re reading this), you will find the adventure.
Bauhaus: 405 Downey Ave, Modesto, CA
Here's a directory of downtown Modesto eateries, shops, and more to keep you anchored:
Mural Alley: 918 10th Street, Modesto, CA
The Cinephile
Who Snacks
If this is you: You see a movie, and you’re not even back in the car before you are dying to reach out and discuss the emotional impact of what you just experienced (and will do so for the rest of the week).
If this is you: You don’t even have to look at the butter dispenser as it dresses your movie popcorn—you just know when it’s ready because it feels right.
If this is you: Every time you walk toward the ticket booth, you feel like Little Orphan Annie who has just been rescued by Daddy Warbucks, and you know it because you’ve arrived under the hot, dazzling lights of the theater, and that means you are home!
If this is you,
this is your reminder and full permission to recline into the deep seats and sounds of a bona fide blockbuster theater experience at Brenden Theatre on 10th and J Streets. If you park in the City parking garage at 10th and K Streets, bring your parking pass with you because Brenden Theatres validates!
Post-movie pro tip: If you managed to catch a matinee, stop by Rodin Ranch Farmers Market when the movie is over and stock up on snacks for your next home movie marathon. You will thank us later when you’re nibbling away on a brick of Reese's Pieces fudge that tastes like someone saved up one million of the tasty Reese’s morsels, separated the filling from the hard candy shell, and gifted you with a wealth of that ambrosia-like peanut buttery goodness only, sans the crunchy exterior. This is real. Find it here: https://rodinranch.com/collections/all