From the category archives:

Hangouts

Post image for Menlo’s sweetest store: Sugar Shack

Given that she’s the owner of the Sugar Shack, it’s probably not surprising the Suzi Tinley’s kids like candy. More surprising is that there are seven of them!

The retail location on Santa Cruz Avenue in downtown Menlo, which opened three years ago, is just one part of the business. Two Sugar Shack candy carts make their way to birthday parties, Bar/Bat Mitvahs and even weddings (for grown ups with sweet tooths). The space is also rented out for special events.

But it’s the hangout factor the gives the store it’s continuing buzz. “We’re the Starbucks of the middle school set,” says Tinsley. WiFi is available and the soda fountain gets packed after school. “I even spotted one older kid filling out his college applications.”

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, the stores is brimming with a wide variety of red/pink/white candies. “We also have wonderful chocolate covered oreos, cupid corn, and cherry gummi bears which are all unique to the Sugar Shack,” says Tinsley.

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Cafe Zoe - Menlo Park, California - InMenlo.com

kathleen cafe zoe 153x300 Cafe Zoe   a place to eat, sip, listen and talkKathleen Daly was good at ignoring the ad offering a small cafe for sale – she did so for months. But when she drove over to take a look, the decision to buy was instant. Cafe Zoe came to life in June 2008 and the new owner set to work on revised hours and menu and presenting the work of local artists and musicians. There’s live music most Friday evenings starting at 6:00 pm and on Sundays at 1:00 pm.

Daly says “zoe” means life in Greek. Indeed, her cafe has become the lifeblood of the surrounding Willows community.

“Kathleen has transformed the neighborhood by bringing Cafe Zoe to us,” says Rachel Modena Barasch who lives nearby and stops in at Zoe three times a day. “It’s a place to congregate and meet up with friends. Zoe is a safe place. I can come and listen to music and my children can play out back.”

“You know the saying ‘it takes a village,’” says Daly. “Well, the village was already here. Cafe Zoe just opened the doors.”

Photos by Chris Gulker

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Through it all, Kepler’s endures

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Kepler’s Books is, simply put, a Menlo Park legend. “Our story is so public that there’s little that’s not known about either the store or the family,” says Clark Kepler, son of founder Roy.
But for those just tuning in, the highlights:

Opened in 1955 by World War II conscientious objector Roy Kepler
Shocked local residents by being [...]

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The Monday club gathers at Borrone

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Habitués of Menlo’s Cafe Borrone may have noticed a small sea of brightly-colored safety garments on Monday mornings (between 10 and 11), all of which adorn bicyclists of a certain age. A curious InMenlo staffer was told that the standing Monday morning coffee date is a gathering of several Peninsula cycling groups, including the Western [...]

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Bringing a touch of Paris to Menlo Park

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Ali Elsafy, who’s lived in New York and Paris, first emerged on Menlo’s restaurant scene when he opened La Luna on Crane in 1995. Three years later he opened his French bistro, Vida, in the space once occupied by Stanford Ice Cream.
In 1998,  Santa Cruz Ave. was just starting to become a more vibrant downtown.  [...]

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TJ’s turkeymania rises to new heights

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When the giant inflatable turkey went up in the Menlo Park Trader Joe’s (the day after Halloween) we were reminded that Thanksgiving was but weeks away.
Today, TJ shoppers discovered that the Menlo Park crew had kicked holiday cheer up a notch, with most sporting pilgrim hats or turkey caps.
Crewmember Gino, however, went full-tilt, donning a [...]

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KFOG DJs kick off holidays at Peet’s

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KFOG morning crew members Greg McQuaid (left) and Bill Webster (2nd fom left) pose with a fan at the Peet’s Coffee store in the shopping center at El Camino and Middle. Fogheads and Peetniks showed up for the occasion, which was a public launch party for KFOG’s annual Live From The Archives CD, sales of [...]

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A long time Oasis on game day

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In most ways, the Oasis Beer Garden has changed little since Bernie Tougas opened it in 1958 – and that’s what keeps successive generations of locals coming back for a game day beer.
Located in Menlo just a couple of blocks from the Paly city limits, during its first few decades it was the closest place [...]

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Menlo Park’s Foster’s Freeze is Still Standing

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Three years after  a petition containing hundreds of signatures was presented to the Menlo Park City Council to avoid its demolition, Foster’s Freeze is still standing and doling out soft-serve ice cream, much as it has for the past six decades.
To graduates of Menlo Atherton High School of a certain generation, Foster’s Freeze was the [...]

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Pounds of grounds make most of compost

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The brown bin behind the Peet’s Coffee at Santa Cruz and University makes one of Peet’s inevitable by-products, coffee grounds, available to local gardeners. The grounds can go into compost heaps or worm bins, or just dug into planting beds.
Keeping the focus on recycling, Menlo homeowners who diligently place their yard trimmings curbside for [...]

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Carpaccio – where everybody knows your name

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A fixture on Crane Street since 1987, Carpaccio is the definition of neighborhood restaurant – consistent quality, fair prices, and friendly staff (pictured left to right: Diego, Mark, Ciya, Luis).  Loyalists come for perennial menu pleasers like the lasagne on Wednesday and Friday nights as well as weekly seasonal specials. And  it’s fanbase is sufficient [...]

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Menlo mainstay: Ann’s Coffee Shop

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Breakfast and lunch spot Ann’s Coffee Shop has been a fixture on Santa Cruz Avenue in downtown Menlo Park for 63 years, probably making it the champ of Menlo’s mainstays. It’s changed  little since it first opened in 1946, using the original pancake recipe and still offering real milkshakes and daily specials Monday through Friday.  [...]

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Ladera: A bit of Menlo, a bit of Portola Valley

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Long time Menlo residents probably think of the Ladera neighborhood and the Ladera Country Shopper as part of Menlo Park. Never literally part of Menlo – it’s always been unincorporated county of San Mateo – but Menlo by name. That changed some years ago, according Juan Navarro (pictured) – who’s owned Ladera Garden and Gifts [...]

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Hangouts: Peet’s

The conversation between two locals at last Wednesday’s concert in Fremont Park went something like this: “I’ll bet that Peet’s has been there for 40 years, no, maybe I’m giving  it 10 years.” ” Hmmm. I’m guesiing it opened in the late 70s – I think 30 years is more like it.”
While InMenlo has yet [...]

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Hangouts: Cafe Borrone

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The consensus is universal: There’s no bigger hangout in all of Menlo Park than Cafe Borrone, which debuted in its current location on El Camino near the Menlo train station in the ’90s. For some like the Rev. Frannie Hall Kieschnick, associate rector of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on Ravenswood, its the ideal place for [...]

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