Coffee & Treats in Modesto

Mocha Magic has served up locally roasted coffee and homemade café fare in a sun-bathed modern space since 1994. Behind the café counter, sandwich makers layer sourdough and croissant with honey baked ham, smoked turkey, and fresh produce accompaniments. At breakfast, patrons can jumpstart the day with freshly baked scones and muffins, but are discouraged from jumpstarting a car by pouring espresso drinks directly into the gas tank.

When couple Jenna Harvey and Ryan Woods graduated from UC Davis, they decided to create their own jobs. "It's not in our character to throw up our hands and say, 'Well, we tried,'" Harvey says as she remembers doggedly planning a 400-square-foot shaved-ice shack with Woods and their friend Steffen Haro. Their dream quickly evolved into a shop nearly three times as large, complete with an espresso bar, a kettle-corn popper, and a drive-up window. Named Pura Vida for the Costa Rican phrase that captivated Harvey during a charitable trip in 2007—"Locals say to them it means 'live pure,' and we like that"—the affable staff douses fluffy curls of ice with sweet fruits, puckery sours, and an array of sugar-free flavors accented with ice cream or marshmallows. Hot and iced coffees, which Pura Vida hopes to someday source directly from Costa Rica, enliven palates in between bites of kettle corn, which Woods pops from whole-grain kernels. As soft music floats through the red-walled storefront, free WiFi ricochets across the hand-built bamboo counter and onto patio tables perched beneath a shady pitched awning.

The modest size of Cheesecake Kitchen’s bakery stands at odds with its extensive menu of cheesecakes and cheesecake-flavored desserts, many of which include copious toppings of peanut butter, candy bars, and fruit. The 5-, 7-, and 10-inch cheesecakes nestle side-by-side within a display case that proudly exhibits more than 25 concoctions laced with flavors such as chocolate mocha and eggnog rum. In addition to traditional cake slices, the expert staff bakes their signature cheesecake tastes into brownies, cannoli, cupcakes, and elegant pillbox hats. Cheesecake Kitchen’s freezable cakes can also be slathered in customized decorations to celebrate a birthday party.

At YogoMania, you can skip the middleman and head straight toward self-serve stations to load up on refreshing frozen yogurt. Its Stolting machines swirl 12 featured flavors into cups, cones, and waffle bowls. Flavors change frequently, but on a typical day you can mix up classic flavors such as vanilla bean with exotic café-inspired treats such as cocoa'ccino and milk-chocolate mocha. Or instead, they offer smoothies in flavors such as strawberry and orange-tangerine, which draw their sweetness from real fruit. The smoothies also are free of dairy products, lactose, and gluten. To add an energizing crunch to your treats, add toppings such as graham crackers, Kit-Kats, or toasted almonds, or feel free to bring ice cubes from home.

At Ice Cream Company, chilled cream serves as a stage for showcasing local and seasonal ingredients. Each day, the spotlight shines on more than 25 homemade flavors ranging from classic vanilla and chocolate to exotic varieties such as coconut, swiss-chip orange, and raspberry cheesecake. Scoops tango with mix-ins such as hot fudge and Heath bars to form 100 types of milkshakes, which can be thickened with malt powder or fresh bananas. In addition to building ice-cream masterpieces, visitors can construct sandwiches from a choice of breads, cheeses, meats, and more spreads than a 1,000-page magazine.

Frozen treats, milkshakes, and smoothies provide bursts of chilled refreshment to mouths visiting YoGo Station’s self-serve frozen-yogurt bar. A rotating daily lineup of eight sweet flavors appears on YoGo Station’s menu, and self-serve frozen-yogurt machines let customers pour their own cups, customizing their portions to suit diet plans, or match the precisely measured volume of their mouths. While tons of toppings clamor for a spot atop frozen-yogurt mountains, smoothies and milkshakes also jockey for attention. Much like the facial expressions carved onto Mount Rushmore, YoGo’s inspired menu changes weekly.