Guests Can Feel The Spotlight at The Spotlight Café

BY VIRGINIA STILL

After several challenges over the past few years Angela Huerta has reopened Spotlight Café once again. The café is located at 603 H Street and is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Monday and closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. They offer a variety of beverages including hot and cold coffee, teas, blended drinks, and some edible items like sandwiches and pastries.

The cafe originally opened in October 2020 with a grand opening celebration and ribbon cutting. Huerta explained that it took her about a year and a half to turn it into the café she envisioned. They redid the floor, built the kitchen, installed the plumbing, and brought in the bar and tiled it.

“It was a lot,” said Huerta about the new business. “I had anxiety and we really struggled with not having very many customers so I was only opened three days a week. We were using more electricity than serving customers. If it flies it flies and if it dies it dies. Right now, I plan to stay open.”

The lack of customers propelled Huerta to be creative and she started renting out the space for private parties and pop-up events.

It was previously Townsend Opera house. She has plans for the drama to continue at her café as they have a stage for open mic nights, comedy nights, and live music.

“I want to aim at some high school kids to come here and check it out,” remarked Huerta. “It is an art café. If you want to come in and do music, drawing, painting, whatever your art is come and share it with the café, I got walls to display things.”

Although she is an owner of a café, Huerta has several jobs to make ends meet and is also a student at Modesto Junior College. She is also a caregiver, works with the homeless and people in need. Her husband is the janitor, her daughter is the barista, and her son fills in making it a real family affair.

With the pandemic and several deaths of friends and family the business venture was a bit bleak and they had closed off and on. They planned to reopen in April 2022 but in March a drunk driver crashed into the café causing major damage.

“I cannot walk away from all the blood, sweat and tears I put into this place,” stated Huerta. “To me I already did the hard part so now I feel like I need to stay here and market and get people in here.”

They finally got through several hurdles and reopened in early November. Huerta has hopes that her vision of an art café and possibly a place where she can open Halo Consulting which would include a variety of things like assistance for those that are in danger of losing their home and immigration.

They serve hot and cold sandwiches like chicken pesto and roast beef paninis, sandwich wraps, bagels, and pastries. She is working on getting a grill so that she can offer customers breakfast burritos and other items.

Spotlight Café has Mexican Concha’s that are vegan and gluten free.

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Huerta expressed that they have received several compliments on their caramel Frappuccino’s stating they are better than other places. They also have organic teas, smoothies, and flavored lemonades. A guest favorite during the warmer days is their Mango Bombers which is blended sorbet with Tajin and Tamarindo.

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Things have been challenging owning a business but Huerta noted that “it feels awesome” owning her own business and that “it feels like it is not real.”

In January they will host a paint night and other events. They use Door Dash, and Grub Hub. For more information visit them on Facebook @thespotlightcafemodesot or Instagram @thespotlightcafemodesto.