OLD TOWN SOUL

Downtown Chico has always been a place that people want to be. It’s the vibrant, beating heart of the community, and some say it’s the soul, too. In recent years, it’s gone through a bit of a rough patch, but with the community beginning to recover from the pandemic and with the announcement of a significant amount of funding being allocated by the City of Chico to the Downtown Chico

Business Association for upgrades and beautification, Downtown Chico is once again turning a corner.

Some of the best-known businesses downtown are the anchor stores who have been there for twenty years or more. We all know them: Bird in Hand, Kirk’s Jewelry, Broadway Heights, Upper Crust, Campus Bicycles, Nantucket, and Melody Records are just a few. It’s rare to find a person who doesn’t know what you’re talking about when you mention the Broadway Bowl you had for lunch, or the cool new record you just picked up, along with a crystal and poster, at Melody. These businesses are icons of downtown, places that, against obstacles deep and wide, have survived, and even thrived. restaurant on West 3rd Street, has been in its current location since it opened about five years ago. Last year, it broke ground on a new space in the building where Campus Bicycles lived for many years as it too picked up and moved a little farther down Main Street. The building has been undergoing major retrofitting and construction and is currently boarded up, but if Momona’s Facebook page is anything to go by, there’s a lot to get excited about. Known for being a cozy, modern restaurant serving up cozy, comforting food (momona does mean satiated, well-fed, and fertile, after all), Momona 2.0 is sure to be a masterpiece of understated design and a place to continue finding the noodle and bao that Chico has come to love.

Hot on their heels are a number of newer businesses that have a lot to offer downtown and the citizenry at large.

D’Emilio’s Bakery and Delicatessen is a cheerful looking new addition to Main Street with its bright gold exterior and beautiful big glass windows offering a peep into a spacious dining area that envelops you in warmth and the smell of baking bread as soon as you walk in.

Exposed brick and old wooden floors give off the charm of yesteryear as you wait for a sandwich, and the racks of bread against the walls dare you to leave without a freshly baked loaf or sack of rolls.

In October, the news that beloved Chico bakery Tin Roof was going out of business hit the community, and especially downtown, hard. Many businesses all over the county rely on the bakery for their freshly baked bread for sandwiches, rolls, and buns each and every day. They also have a loyal following of customers who pack the tiny café for coffee and baked goods on the daily, and who seek the bread out at retailers all over town. It was unconscionable that they would simply cease to exist, but that’s exactly what happened. Then, in the new year, subterranean murmurings began that Tin Roof would rise again (pun intended), continuing to bake bread from the same recipes they’d been using and in the very same location. The re-launch took place in February to much fanfare, and the Little Bakery That Could seems to be ticking over much as if nothing had ever happened, saving jobs and keeping yet another building from succumbing to a life of sad emptiness. It’s perhaps one of the best stories to have come out of downtown in recent years and is a testament to what has become a theme–people rallying around something they believe in to save it from disappearing.

It’s amazing what a concerned group of citizens can do. The news is full of stories of people helping others in absolutely beautiful and soul-fulfilling ways, funding pensions for elderly people who are still working and paying for desperatelyneeded surgeries that some families are unable to afford. This kindness goes beyond money. It’s a universal need for those who see suffering to do what they can to alleviate it, and it’s a trait that unites us as human beings in the face of incredible odds. Downtown was facing some pretty incredible odds during and after the pandemic, and the business owners and merchants who are moving in are doing so in trying economic times, yet they refuse to let a vital part of the town die. It’s a saving grace that people like that exist in a world like this one, where there will always be those who attempt to convince us that there is nothing good left in others.

The businesses mentioned in this article are just the tip of what is a very dense iceberg of wonderful shops and restaurants that fill an area ten blocks long and five blocks wide. Downtown

Keeping Downtown Beautiful

If you've spent any time downtown over the past few years, you've undoubtedly seen a number of individuals sporting blue shirts or jackets emblazoned with the Downtown Chico logo. These Downtown Chico Ambassadors are responsible for a clean and vibrant downtown experience, making sure our sidewalks are clear of debris, buildings are free of graffiti, and so much more. The tireless efforts of ambassadors like Anthony and Ashley, pictured to the right, have transformed the downtown into an even more enjoyable community, and we couldn't be more thankful for their time and efforts. Their watch begins early in the morning and continues late into the evening, ensuring Downtown Chico remains a safe and beautiful place for visitors day-after-day, week-after-week. If you see them out and about, don't forget to thank them for all they do.

Chico is full of wonderful businesses run by individuals and families who love this town and who love their customers. They need us. They need you to have a date night, to wander and window shop, to tell your friends about what you saw. Without you, they would not be here, and we would lose a vital piece of what makes Chico so special. Shop small. Shop local. Shop in your own downtown.