Ask a resident which street defines downtown, and the answer used to be University. Ask this summer, and the honest answer is that the story has moved two miles south. California Avenue, once a quiet neighborhood commercial strip, is where the city is now doing its most interesting work.
The proof is in the openings, the closures, and the Thursday nights. Read them together and a thesis emerges: Palo Alto is quietly reshuffling its dining and gathering life onto Cal Ave, while University sorts through a slower churn of taquerias and cafes replacing familiar names. For anyone who already lives here, the practical question is where to spend a July evening. The interesting question is what the pattern of replacements says about the summer ahead.
The Thursday that changed hands
The most visible change is a music series with a new name and a new producer. Thursday Live on Cal Ave takes place monthly on Thursdays, May through September, with a free music series that kicked off May 28 with activities that include a car show. The event runs along the pedestrian-only stretch of California Avenue between El Camino Real and Birch Street, and the inaugural event brought cars back to the street for one night as its centerpiece: a show of high-end luxury vehicles coordinated by Auto Vino and presented by Terún Pizzeria, with a performance by the Terún Family Band on the Ash stage.
If the format sounds familiar, it should. Thursday Live on Cal Ave follows in the footsteps of the 3rdThursday series, which also featured live music and themed activities on California Avenue each month between May 2023 and October 2025. The switch was not amicable. The city had opted not to renew its partnership with producer Carol Garsten after the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce withdrew as the fiscal sponsor of 3rdThursday. For a resident who spent the last two summers on that block, the branding has changed and the producer has changed, but the ritual has not: a Thursday evening, a closed street, a stage near Ash.
What is genuinely new is the ambition around it. The stretch of California Avenue between El Camino and Birch Street has been transformed into a car-free promenade since the pandemic. Cal Ave is a historically neighborhood-serving commercial strip that city leaders are now remaking into one of the city's premier party zones. Whether that reshaping is welcome depends on the resident. Michael and Lara Ekwall, co-owners of the Cuban restaurant La Bodeguita del Medio, suggested that the street has actually become more dangerous in the years since car traffic was removed, writing that the growing mix of bicycles, ebikes, scooters, pedestrians, delivery traffic, and outdoor dining activity has, at times, created congested, confusing, and unsafe conditions that undermine the relaxed pedestrian environment originally envisioned.
The concert series is the surface event. The real work is the parklet ecosystem underneath it.
Reading the replacements
The clearest way to see what kind of downtown is emerging is to watch which spaces get taken over, and by whom. A short map of the summer's inheritances:
Former TOMO Tea House → Rikyu. Mountain View resident Daiji Uehara, founder of Daiji Yacht Club and chef-owner of Hiroshi in Los Altos, debuted a casual, more affordable concept in downtown Palo Alto: a Japanese cafe. Specializing in matcha, sandos and chirashi, Rikyu aims to be a third place with high-quality food and beverage options, and Hiroshi will act as Rikyu's central kitchen, with the fish at the cafe the same as that served in the high-end omakase restaurant. Located in the former space of TOMO Tea House, Rikyu plans to soft open in mid-February. The signal here is that a Los Altos omakase operator sees enough demand in Palo Alto to run a satellite off the same fish program.
Former Poke One → Bistro Demiya. Cupertino residents Demi Ebara and husband Arthur de la Cueva are opening their sixth Bay Area restaurant this summer in downtown Palo Alto. Bistro Demiya is an elevated version of their casual chain Demiya, which specializes in Japanese curry. Located in the former Poke One space, the restaurant seats about 25, with an additional 10 in the backyard. The address is 407 Lytton Ave.
Former SliderBar → La Corneta Taqueria. A 31-year-old taqueria is expanding to the former SliderBar location on University Avenue, serving the same burritos, tacos and plates it's known for in other cities, expected to open before Cinco de Mayo May 5, according to co-owner David Perez-Campos, at 324 University Ave.
Former Son & Garden → Peng's Kitchen. A new Chinese restaurant is coming to the former home of Son & Garden. The restaurant has more than 60 locations in China and Hong Kong, according to its Instagram. An opening date has not yet been announced. Peng's Kitchen sits at 535 Bryant St.
New to Emerson → Mints & Honey. Peninsula brunch restaurant Mints & Honey is expanding to Emerson Street. The cafe was founded in San Carlos by sisters Dot and Canna Teng in 2017 and expanded to Burlingame in 2022. An opening date has not yet been announced. The address is 728 Emerson St.
The pattern is not random. Four of the five inheritances are chef-owned regional operators expanding into Palo Alto because they can, rather than national chains buying a University Avenue trophy address. That is a different downtown than the one many long-time residents remember.
One address to watch
The single most telling swap is at 321 California Avenue. Croissanté, a trendy French bakery with outposts in Santa Clara and Los Gatos, is coming to the former space of beloved dive bar Antonio's Hut House. Owner Sean Kang said that there was a huge delay, and he's expecting to open the bakery in late 2026 at 321 California Ave.
A dive bar becoming a pastry counter is not a neutral event. It is the clearest single data point for what Cal Ave is becoming. The Almanac's food team put the point sharply: California Avenue may soon be a destination for pastry lovers. If you were tracking the street's identity, that is the sentence to save.
The counterweight is that not every change is chef-driven curation. Construction of the 14- and 5-story towers at the Mollie Stone's site and the Muwekma Ohlone basket building further down the block will disrupt activities on California Avenue for many years. The concert series and the parklets are the near-term summer. The construction sequence is the multi-year one, and any resident planning to fold Cal Ave into their weekly rhythm should know both are in play.
The Stanford Shopping Center anchor
Slightly off the two main strips, the summer's largest debut is already open. Zaytinya, a Mediterranean restaurant from the James Beard Award-winning chef José Andrés, made its Bay Area debut Dec. 1, and while the José Andrés Group operates 15 unique concepts across the nation, Zaytinya, which was first established in Washington, D.C., in 2002, is the first to land in the Bay Area. Like its other locations, Zaytinya Palo Alto will offer Turkish, Greek and Lebanese cuisine. Palo Alto local Andy Cohen serves as the head chef at the new restaurant, having previously worked at Palo Alto businesses such as Radiate Hospitality, Graduate Hotels and Stanford University.
Zaytinya is the outlier that clarifies the rule. Big-name national concept, high-visibility mall address, local kitchen leadership. It is the Palo Alto that visitors book six weeks ahead. Cal Ave is the Palo Alto that residents drop into after work.
A resident's Thursday, in practice
For anyone building a July or August evening around the new rhythm, the useful shape is this:
- Walk or bike to the El Camino end of Cal Ave before 6 p.m. The ribbon-cutting slot on the inaugural night was 6, and that is when the crowd settles.
- Anchor the meal at a familiar Cal Ave restaurant with a parklet rather than at the concert itself. Terún has been the visible partner for the series and knows the choreography.
- Route the walk east toward Birch to see the parklets that are being reworked under new rules. The design changes are the summer's second story.
- On a non-Thursday, use the same evening window for the new University corridor: Rikyu for a matcha and a chirashi bowl, Bistro Demiya once it opens in the former Poke One space, or La Corneta at 324 University.
- Save Croissanté for a late-2026 morning. That opening, more than any other, will tell you what Cal Ave has decided to be.
What the summer rewards
The reader who lives here already knows Cal Ave is closed to cars and University is not. What is less obvious, and worth carrying into the season, is that the operators moving in are chef-owned and regionally proven, not first-time entrants or national chains. The city is programming Thursdays. The chefs are programming the rest of the week. A summer spent alternating between those two is the most direct way to see what Palo Alto is becoming before the multi-year construction on Cal Ave changes the block again.
The Campi Group has watched this downtown reshape itself across three decades, and the summer of 2026 is one of the more interesting inflection points we have seen. If you are thinking about a move within Palo Alto, adjusting a portfolio in the neighborhoods around Cal Ave and University, or simply want a conversation with someone who reads this market closely, The Campi Group would be glad to talk. Work With Us.
