The Farmacy
By Chris Murphy
A new oasis of healthy deliciousness is open on 10th Street, my favorite street in town. Here on Modesto’s original cruise route where things are happening, Erin Doran and her team have been working on this new project they call the Farmacy for a few years. What began as a pop up, near their Century event center, the Nine3One Work Space and the Rose Bouquet, was refined during COVID and earlier this year, a new menu and restaurant concept developed and a new fully independent Farmacy was born.
Erin is really proud of this phase of her 10th Street expansion. Over the years as her business grew, she battled digestive health issues and many food allergies. When she went to her doctor, the solutions were medicinal, sometimes involving steroids and many foods were eliminated from her diet. She grew depressed and decided to start researching food science and for solutions. As she learned, she also earned a certificate in food science and developed her own plant-based vegan diet. At first it was difficult, but over the last few years, it has become easier as ingredients became more plentiful. Over time, she became healthy and illness free and she decided that she could build a full restaurant along with her other businesses. So today we have the Farmacy.
Farmacy is named as it is farm to fork, but it is also the presentation of food as a healthy fuel for your body, a natural medicine as it were and there you have Farmacy. What she and her team have prepared is fun, beautiful, healthy and tasty, in a cool location with nice white subway tile, and natural décor.
We tried a few of the Farmacy creations, prepared and served by Raine Texiera and Jakob Mikkelson. They were also very helpful and knowledgeable who were guided us into the vegan menu options as are admittedly newcomers. What we learned is that everything we had was really tasty and we would readily order it again.
The Farmacy offers brunch items beginning at 9 am with cool things like pancakes, French toast and Carrot Lox Toast. Their lunch items we enjoyed were the Quinoa Street Tacos. This is a 3-pack and they are super tasty. The beet salad was really sweet and tart and the beets were delicious. The roasted vegetable wedges were the perfect side. My favorite was the B.E.L.T. sandwich with smoked tempeh, vegan eggs on a gluten free everything roll with a side of edemame. Next time I am totally having the loaded “cheesy” wedges and the chickpea pesto wrap. It will be fun to try the rest of the menu.
For beverages, I am already a lover of Kombucha, so their on-tap offering was perfect. They also have a variety of spa waters, with various plant infusions and the house favorites of botanical lemonades. They also have a tasty Blue Moon smoothie that could also be at home in Star Wars Land and even have a sweet potato latte, as well as an orange cream smoothie. So much to choose from.
So, what about a cocktail with dinner? One of the things that I already knew is that most spirits are already Vegan. Bonus! Erin is very excited about the next chapter for the Farmacy as she plans on offering a vegan cocktail line and is also working to find vegan wines. Interesting fact, you would think that all wines are vegan, but they are not. If you want to find a wine that is vegan, look for the label “unfined” as the fining process in wine can contain animal based ingredients. So expect
The team has been careful in all of the sourcing of restaurant décor and service that is also vegan. What is nice about the Farmacy, they have done all of the thinking for you and you can count on what they serve to you will be 100% vegan.
Events are one of Erin’s specialties, so you can expect healthy food seminars, a possible new sunrise yoga and healthy food experience and she will be experimenting with evening events that will be a sensory experience as long as a food experience. Sounds like a lot of fun.
There will be a lot happening this month, but the timeline is not firm yet. If we keep progressing heath and safety wise, you should expect to see inside dining this month. You can check these places for info and make sure you follow them on socials. ModestoView will keep you up to speed on further openings.
You can order online for pick up and delivery, but whatever you do, check out the menu and head down to 10th Street and check out the Farmacy.
www.downtownfarmacy.com
www.facebook.com/downtownfarmacy/
209-422-6762
907 10th Street, Modesto 95354
@downtownfarmacy
Wed-Fri 9 am – 4 pm Sat Sun 9 am – 1 pm
