Twenty years. Fifteen restaurants. Then Wildfire.

John Ismail has worked just about every job there is in a restaurant, starting on the floor clearing tables and working his way up through all of it. That's not a humble beginnings story. It's the reason he knows what a room feels like when the service is off, and why he's still on the floor most nights.

In June 2019, he opened a place of his own.

Oakdale Road. A space designed around fire. Fire pits on the patio, fire elements through the interior, a cocktail menu with drinks that actually light up tableside. The name was no accident. John wanted warmth. He wanted the kind of place where you walk in and feel something, not just another bar and grill that looks like every other bar and grill in the Central Valley.

The food was the other part of it. Everything made from scratch. Sauces built in house. Steaks hand cut. Seafood sourced fresh. Dishes that had no business being this good at these prices in Modesto, and that was exactly the point.

"We wanted to create a very warm, inviting environment with more of a big city feel that I think we were lacking around here," John said. He got that right.

Within a year, Wildfire had become the place people brought their parents, brought their dates, brought their friends from out of town specifically to show them what Modesto had. The Flaming Ribeye became a talking point. The Brown Butter Cake became a guest obsession. The It's Lit Margarita showed up on social media more than anyone planned. And the fire pit patio on a warm California evening? That sold itself.

The reviews kept saying the same kinds of things, and John responded to every single one of them. Still does.

Seven years in, the menu keeps evolving. The tap list keeps rotating. The cocktails keep getting better. What stays the same is the reason Wildfire exists: to be the final destination. The place you come for birthdays, for anniversaries, for date nights, for a Tuesday burger when you just need somewhere that feels like home.

The fire is still on. Come in.