John’s and Josh’s Favorite Eatery-

Wool Growers in Los Banos Enjoyed by NFL Greats Madden and Allen

Los Banos Basque restaurant, the Wool Growers, was one of many favorite eating establishments of the late NFL coach and analyst John Madden.  It is also a favorite of Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.  

Lost in the many tributes and obituary pieces on the late John Madden was a connection he had to Merced County.

The former coach and retired television personality who died in December 2021, loved eating at the Wool Growers Restaurant in Los Banos.

Known for his hundreds of thousands of miles logged on the road in his custom-made bus (he hated airplanes), Madden had a lust for life both as a Super Bowl-winning coach and an Emmy-winning sports analyst.

He also had an appreciation for food and had favorite restaurants all around the United States.  Traveling from city to city to cover football games gave him exposure to where some of the best places to eat were in practically every region of the nation.

But his home base was the Bay Area, and one of his favorite places to eat was right here in Merced County.

“I hear people talking about him eating here,” says Wool Growers co-owner Ruth Reynosa who along with her daughter Talisa Vander Poel took over running the place a few years ago.  “He was a customer before we started here.”

Wool Growers Restaurant at 609 H Street in Los Banos is a family style French Basque establishment.   Photo:  Wool Growers Restaurant Facebook page.

As my writing colleague Tom Frazier stated in his Merced County Times column earlier this year, Basque country straddles the border of Spain and France. 

Many of the Basque people raised sheep and have been coming to California for over a century.  

The Wool Growers Restaurant began in late 1800s.  Specialties include roast lamb, pork chops, and baked chicken.  It is also known for a lamb stew that customers have enjoyed for years.

I ate lunch there once in the mid-2000s and immediately called my wife to let her know I would not be eating dinner.  That midday meal at the Wool Growers was filling.

“Running a restaurant is not easy,” Ruth says.  “Running it together with my daughter is much better this way as you need to trust your business partner.”

Daughter Talisa agrees.  “This place is set up family-style, our customers are like family, so it makes sense that a family runs it.” 

The interior of Wool Growers is set up for family style dining.  Photo:  Wool Growers Restaurant Facebook page.

While there are apparently no pictures of John Madden dining at the restaurant, Ruth shared one photo that was on Reddit.com showing what appears to be the back of his head wearing a Wool Growers hat. 

There’s also a reference to his affection for the place in a Sports Illustrated profile.  

Ruth says many people observed him at the restaurant on several occasions

.  “One customer who remembers him eating here told us he enjoyed the ambiance of the place,” Ruth says.  

Buffalo Bills quarterback and Firebaugh native Josh Allen dines at Wool Growers when he visits family in the off-season.  He’s flanked here by owners Ruth Reynosa and Talisa Vander Poel.  Photo:  Wool Growers Restaurant Facebook page.

That appreciation of the family atmosphere of Wool Growers seems to have been passed on to a new generation of NFL greats.  

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, a native of nearby Firebaugh, enjoys eating there when he’s in the area visiting family.

“He usually comes by in the weeks after the Super Bowl,” Ruth says.  “He likes our lamb stew and the last time he was here a few months ago he had a New York strip steak.”

Ruth and Talisa are happy their restaurant touched John Madden enough for him to keep coming back year after year. 

Now with Josh Allen making Wool Growers a regular stop when he visits during the off-season, both owners hope to see more of him in the coming years.

They hope all their customers feel the same way.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced. 

His book A Bundle of Memories combines two memoirs along with thirty pages of new material. 

The book is available at Lulu.com.  It is also available via author search on bookshop.org where each purchase helps independent book store owners.

Vintage Cars Ready for a Permanent Home-

Graffiti USA Museum takes another step toward 2023 Opening

This convertible is one of many vintage cars that will be on display when the Graffiti USA Classic Car Museum opens in 2023. Photo: Steve Newvine

As a young adult in Modesto in the 1950s and early sixties, John Sanders loved working on cars.

He and his buddies liked showing off their hot rods on 10th and 11th Streets in this city about forty miles north of Merced.

“I fixed up a 1960 Aston Martin DB4,” Don laughs. “And my wife and I took it on our honeymoon.”

That love of fixing up and showing off classic cars is what has propelled Don and some of his fellow business owners to help start a museum that will open in 2023 along Ninth Street in the city.

The Graffiti USA Classic Car Museum will celebrate the heritage of classic cars as depicted in the iconic movie American Graffiti directed by Modesto native George Lucas.

The Graffiti USA Classic Car Museum will showcase vintage automobiles. Some of the cars are owned by the Museum, while others will be loaned for a defined period of time. Photo: Steve Newvine

A non-profit corporation was formed a few years ago to take the idea of a showcase for cars and the Modesto way of life during the American Graffiti era and turn it into a museum.

Over a million dollars in monetary and non-monetary donations have been received.

The museum will get a local government grant for another million dollars over the next two years while more fundraising continues.

The corporation has purchased two former seed and grain warehouses and has been working to get the museum showroom ready for a 2023 opening.

The buildings have over forty-thousand square feet for museum displays, a banquet hall, and office space.

“The banquet area is already being used by local non-profits as well as our organization,” Don says.

Another feature of the Graffiti USA Classic Car Museum will be a tribute to the Modesto way of life as it was in the 1950s and 1960s. Photo: Steve Newvine

When the first phase of the museum opens, visitors will see an impressive collection of vintage automobiles. The main display area starts with a large mural showing the Modesto arch with a classic 1960s era convertible.

Beyond the classic car collection, phase two is planned as a recreation of the downtown area as it was back in the heyday of the cruising era of the fifties and sixties.

The Modesto Radio Museum hopes to occupy a spot in that section to salute local radio stations such as KBEE, better known at that time as the Bee.

The Bee played the rock-and-roll hits that might have been blaring on the AM radios in the cars cruising down 10th and 11th Streets.

The Radio Museum currently lives online (ModestoRadioMuseum.org)

“The Graffiti USA Classic Car Museum will celebrate cars, but it will also celebrate Modesto as it was back in the era of American Graffiti,” John says.

An artist rendering of the proposed front of the Graffiti USA Classic Car Museum along with a look at how the museum looks in the spring of 2022.

Architectural sketches for the museum pay homage to the drive-in burger joint style popularized in the movie as well as television programs like Happy Days.

The museum site along Ninth Street connects to another big part of regional history.

Ninth Street was part of the old highway 99 that remains following the construction of the highway 99 most of us know now.

That historic link to Highway 99 is part of an effort to locate a California Rest Area at the site of the museum.

There’s a lot more work that needs to be done before that idea can come to fruition, but the museum leadership is encouraged by the progress made to date.

While the Graffiti USA Classic Car Museum is not open officially, the gift shop serves customers two days a week (Friday and Saturday). Photo: Steve Newvine

In fact, there’s a lot to be proud of as the museum looks back on the effort to acquire the two buildings, oversee the preparation of the display space for the first phase, and look ahead to a grand opening in the near future.

The vision to celebrate Modesto’s car cruising history clouded over for a while when the pandemic hit in 2020.

“COVID just slowed things down,” John says. “But we are looking ahead to a 2023 opening.”

Fundraising will continue to be the primary focus as the museum moves forward.

A recent crab feed sold out with over 450 people in attendance. The museum gift shop is already open two days a week. Sales of tee-shirts, postcards, and even bottles of a specially labeled wine continue to bring in revenue.

The Graffiti USA Classic Car Museum now has a business license to sell cars, making for a unique connection between selling cars to raise money to celebrate cars. Photo: Steve Newvine

The museum recently obtained a California business license to allow for selling cars as a way to raise funds for the effort.

They will sell cars and accept qualified vehicles for donation to the museum.

While it may sound a little unusual for a car museum to be in the car business, this group is actually borrowing the idea from another organization doing the same thing.

The group has reached out to native son George Lucas as well as to former Tonight Show host Jay Leno for support and encouragement.

In the meantime, car guys like John Sanders will continue to pour more time and sweat equity into the project.

Not all his time though.

He’s currently working on restoring another car.

To paraphrase an often used saying, you can take the man out of his car, but you cannot take the car out of the man.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His book California Back Roads includes two stories of people who kept their vintage automobiles in near-perfect condition for fun and necessity.

The book is available at Lulu.com.

Four of his books are now available via author search on bookshop.org where each purchase helps independent book store owners.

For more information on the Graffiti USA Museum, visit: graffitiusamuseum.com