Juan Loya’s family left the Bay Area at the height of the pandemic, selling their home and landscaping business in Hayward to join the tide of families heading east to Modesto.
Loya, 21 at the time, had only visited the Central Valley city to swim in his cousins’ pool on the hottest days of childhood summers. But rising expenses in Hayward were making his parents’ dream of opening a restaurant hazier. When the family found a commercial space they could afford near downtown Modesto in 2020, they didn’t hesitate.
“It was time for a change, and it was an opportunity,” Loya said. “When people move from the Bay Area, they move here.”…