Valley towns. On a bad day, all you see are
neighborhoods full of
60s-stucco sprawl bordered
by fields full of tumble-weeds or Nuevo-Mediterranean sprawl bordered
by up-scale chain stores. On a good day, when you go exploring with fresh eyes,
there are the most interesting flowers sprouting up between the cracks.

Hanford, with it’s large neighborhoods of historic houses
and a marvelously intact downtown,
has more than it’s share of these
hidden ‘valley flowers‘. The Art Works
Cafe (1200 W. Sixth St.) is one of
them.

To label it simply “a cafe‘” doesn‘t do
Art Works justice.
The walls are lined with everything
from antique coffee pots to full-size
Nehi Soda racks full of bottles.
There’s a cooler full of small
do-they-still-MAKE-this-stuff soda
pop brands. They sell candy that you’ve
heard your dad (or Andy Griffith)
talk about. They make sandwiches that
range from veggie to BLT (actually, b.l.A.t.: add avocado....mmmm). They
are also the home of the “Frozen Chicken Smoothie” (more info on that below).
They have occasional live music.
They have book shelves full of
somebody’s art and history books to
cruise through while you wait for your lunch to arrive. They have a gift shop area that includes the fun, the clever and the weird.

Personal reasons for my visiting Art Works Cafe have included:
*Going to see Fresno music icon Glen Delpit play there.
*Comforting a good friend who’d recently moved from Portland and needed to know such places existed
around here. [We drank our way through their exotic soda section.]
*Part of taking the family on a Saturday walk through downtown Hanford.
*A good lunch after a morning of my daughter practicing for her driver’s test that was about to
take place at the DMV in Hanford.

------and, on that pre-DMV visit, which continued later into a post-DMV celebration, in case you were wondering, I began a conversation with owner Steve Banister about his place and my fascination with it and Downtown Hanford in general.

I'm most interested in how ArtWork 'works' in the community of Hanford. It's obvious that Hanford has something unique in their downtown. Can you comment on how Artworks fits into that?
Steve: Downtown Hanford is in a process of revitalization. Destination businesses such as Art works help accelerate and contribute to this process of revitalization.

Can you comment on how Hanford holds that uniqueness together? [ I remember the struggle to keep the Superwalmart out of town, and the cool 'sprawlmart' bumper stickers you had!]
Steve: In the late 1970’s downtown business owners and our civic leaders recognized the value of our downtown Hanford. Intent on preserving its uniqueness and economic vitality, these groups formed a BID, or business improvement district. This BID doubled downtown’s business license fees, but generated a source of income to preserve and promote downtown’s attributes. Hanford was at the forefront of Valley towns at the time our BID was formed. Present civic leaders don’t understand our downtown’s attributes and have become enamored with the sales tax dollars big box stores like a supercenter generate. These stores do not have the double fees our downtown merchants pay.

For a smallish city in an area that is primarily ag-based, is a coffee shop that leans so far to the 'artsy-fartsy' an anomaly? Is it just something that a certain percentage of folks everywhere crave and you fullfill that craving? Did you worry about whether it would 'fly' when you opened it up?

Steve:We consider our place as a fun place to be. That is what our customers say. Huell Howser, Sunset Magazine, and Best Places Guidebook thinks our place “flies.” Consumers just about everywhere crave chain stores, but they also crave destination businesses such as ours as well.

check out Art Works’ website at:
http://www.artworkshanford.com/

find out exactly *what* a FROZEN CHICKEN SMOOTHIE (!!) is at:
http://www.frozenchickensmoothie.com/

How to get there--go down Highway 43...
if you’re heading south on 99 out of Fresno, it’s that turn off at Selma.
Take the 43. You cross the Kings River, etc... and the orchard’s outlined
with that mile of climbing rosebushes until the obvious sign points you
to the town of Hanford. Head down this road....I think it’s 10th Street?....
at Grangeville, either stop at the shopping center and pick up goodies at the
Portuguese Bakery or make a right, and go west for a block to Douty Street. Make a left. You’re heading
more or less South on Douty. You pass the village square with Superior Dairy on
your left. Continue on Douty down to 6th. Make a right (west) and you’re about 50 feet from
the place. Enjoy!)

I SOOOO want to do a gig/event/SOMETHING there with music,
etc etc. Maybe a birthday party????