West Ceres, Ceres, CA

West Ceres is the sprawling side of town, where residential streets share the map with industrial parks, and that mix is why it has a craft beer scene the rest of Ceres lacks. Blaker Brewing at 1063 Montclaire Drive is a family-run brewery with a taproom, and it also runs a second taproom called The Tarmac in Atwater, and Five Eye Brewing at 1920 Foundry Court is the newer neighbor, both in the west side's commercial and industrial blocks. The coffee scene lives here too. Zoe's Coffee Roasting Co at 2030 Rockefeller Drive is a roastery, and The Cafecito Spot on Morgan Road makes signature lattes and lemonades, a shop that grew out of something the family simply loved doing. Taquerias are plentiful, and Taqueria La Carreta and La Plazita Michoacan share the lunch hour with several food trucks. In West Ceres, housing is a patchwork of single-family subdivisions, and the city has drawn up a large planning area on the west side, bounded by Whitmore Avenue on the north and Service Road, as its growth zone. Streets are laid out for cars, and driveways are the main parking. Ceres has eleven city parks, and this side of town holds a good number of them. Sam Ryno Park gives West Ceres its play fields, Don Pedro Park and Strawberry Fields Park add picnic lawns, and Sierra Park and Cameron Park supply the smaller green spaces. A Little Free Library sits among them for anyone who wants a paperback. Cost Less Foods and Best Deal Food cover groceries. Whitmore Avenue and Service Road are the arteries, with Highway 99 a short drive east. The industrial neighbors are the tradeoff, since truck traffic is part of the picture on the roads that serve them. They are also the reason the taprooms and the roastery have room to exist, and it makes for a neighborhood with more to do after work than its map suggests.