Son & Garden is gone. Sushirrito is gone. SliderBar is gone. Poke One is gone. And yet the storefronts they left behind on University Avenue, Lytton, and Emerson are not sitting dark. In their place, a taqueria that has been in San Francisco since 1995, a Japanese curry house from a Cupertino husband-and-wife team, a matcha cafe from the crew behind a Los Altos omakase counter, and a chicken concept most residents have not tried yet are all pouring first pints and slicing first sandos this season.
If you live within a walk or a short drive of downtown, the interesting question is not which places closed. It is why so many operators decided this was the summer to sign a lease. The honest answer has less to do with food trends and more to do with who is eating lunch downtown again.
The vacancy number that explains the wave
The retail vacancy rate on University Avenue stood at 13.4% in Q1 2026, a slight dip from 13.5% a year earlier, with available square footage dropping from 92,110 to 86,807, according to commercial real estate platform CoStar. A tenth of a point is not a rebound. It is a floor.
The more useful figure comes from the city's own labor data. Work-from-home jobs in Palo Alto peaked at roughly 15,000 in 2021 and have since fallen to fewer than 8,000 according to employment data presented to the city's Economic Development Committee on June 3. Palo Alto's workforce totalled just over 100,000 jobs in Q2 2025, up from a post-pandemic low but still short of the roughly 105,000 jobs the city held before COVID-19 hit. In other words, roughly seven thousand workers who used to eat lunch at their kitchen tables are back on the sidewalks.
That is the market the current openings are underwriting. Six new businesses have either opened or are about to open in Palo Alto's commercial corridors, and city officials say the timing may not be accidental: after a shift to remote work during the pandemic, more employees are now showing up in person, and they need somewhere to eat lunch.
What's actually open on University and Lytton
The confirmed openings cluster tightly around three streets. Here is the working map, with addresses and operator context so you can pick your night.
| Place | Address | What it is | Who is behind it |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Corneta Taqueria | 324 University Ave. | Burritos, tacos, tostadas, tamales; kitchen runs to 10 p.m. most nights | Founded by Joel Campos in San Francisco in 1995, fifth location |
| Bistro Demiya | 407 Lytton Ave. | Yoshoku, Japanese curry, katsu sandos, teishoku sets | Cupertino residents Demi Ebara and husband Arthur de la Cueva, sixth Bay Area restaurant |
| Rikyu | Former TOMO Tea House footprint | Matcha, housemade syrups, Japanese sandos including A5 wagyu, chirashi | The team behind Los Altos omakase restaurant Hiroshi |
| Mints & Honey | 728 Emerson St. | Brunch cafe expanding from San Carlos and Burlingame | Sisters Dot and Canna Teng |
| Peng's Kitchen | 535 Bryant St. | Chinese, in the former Son & Garden space | Chain with more than 60 locations in China and Hong Kong |
| Zingster's | 220B University Ave. | Chicken concept | Independent, recently opened |
| Hatched | 855 El Camino Real, Ste. 161, Town & Country Village | Fast-casual breakfast and brunch | Opened in January inside Town & Country Village. The fast-casual breakfast and brunch concept comes from the brothers behind Roost & Roast. |
A resident's read on this table: the operators are not national chains. None of these are national chains muscling in. They are second- or third-restaurant projects from operators who already know the Peninsula. That is a real shift from the sports-bar-and-fast-casual pipeline that used to fill University Avenue in earlier cycles.
The two openings worth building an actual routine around are La Corneta and Bistro Demiya. A 31-year-old taqueria is expanding to the former SliderBar location. It slotted in before Cinco de Mayo May 5, according to co-owner David Perez-Campos, which means it has had a full summer to settle its kitchen. Bistro Demiya, next door in spirit if not on the same block, seats about 25, with an additional 10 in the backyard, so plan for a wait or a Tuesday.
The evening block: Page Mill's quieter debut
The most interesting sit-down opening this summer is not on University at all. It is on Page Mill Road, in a space most residents drive past without registering.
Fans of French bistro Pastis, a staple of Palo Alto's Cal Ave for more than a decade before it closed in 2022, can once again enjoy its signature escargot, mussels and pâté at The Rendezvous, a new bistro and wine bar on Page Mill Road. The project is a reunion. The Rendezvous is the latest project from restaurateur and Menlo Park resident Giuseppe Carrubba (owner of Palo Alto restaurants Kirk's Steakburgers, Caffe Riace and Osteria Toscana, as well as San Jose spots La Foret and The GrandView) and Roucoule (whose previous experience includes Joanie's Cafe, Pastis and La Boheme).
Chef Roucoule framed the format decision this way:
"Usually a wine bar is boring (because there's) no food. So (we're) having a lot of food, plus …. every day we have like five, six, seven specials, so the people don't get bored."
The wine list is deliberately regional in its imbalance. The new Palo Alto wine bar carries about 300 wine labels, with about 40% French, 30% Californian and 30% Italian. If you have been driving to San Mateo or Menlo Park for a longer French-leaning dinner, the Page Mill address changes the calculus.
Still just announced, not yet open
Not every headline concept has a working kitchen. The distinction matters if you are trying to plan a weekend rather than compile a wish list.
- Peng's Kitchen at 535 Bryant St. is a new Chinese restaurant coming to the former home of Son & Garden. An opening date has not yet been announced.
- Mints & Honey at 728 Emerson has been announced without a firm opening date.
- Croissanté, the French bakery slated for California Avenue, is on a longer runway. 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.
- Yutori at 3375 El Camino Real is billed as a Japanese restaurant–marketplace hybrid offering brunch, dinner, cocktails, matcha, pastries, grab-and-go items, and curated home goods. Confirm hours before you drive over.
- The Pro is a revival of the iconic Old Pro, this updated sports bar returns with a stronger focus on food, cocktails, and community.
For the announced-but-not-yet-open list, the practical move is checking each business's own site the morning of, not relying on an aggregator's map pin.
What the tenant mix says about the block
Zoom out from any single opening and a pattern comes into focus. The pandemic-era University Avenue absorbed a wave of closures at the top of its price band, from Son & Garden to Sushirrito. What is replacing them is not a like-for-like substitution. It is a broader menu of independently operated concepts, most of them second or third locations from Peninsula veterans who have already proven their model in San Carlos, Los Altos, Burlingame, or San Francisco.
The city is still working on the empty spaces in between. At the June 3 meeting, Vice Mayor Greer Stone floated the idea of a pop-up retail program, the kind San Francisco and San Luis Obispo have tried to fill vacant storefronts with temporary tenants. Whether that program materializes or not, the private-sector answer is already visible on the sidewalks: operators who know the market are betting on lunch and early dinner from workers who are back at their desks a few days a week.
For a resident, the pragmatic upshot is simpler than the market story. Downtown has more range at 12:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. than it did a year ago, and the new range is concentrated on three walkable streets. If you have defaulted to the same two restaurants since 2023, this is the season to break the habit.
Planning your week
- Weekday lunch, quick: La Corneta on University, Hatched at Town & Country.
- Weeknight dinner, low-key: Bistro Demiya on Lytton, Rikyu for a lighter Japanese menu.
- Weekend brunch: Mints & Honey once Emerson opens, Hatched in the meantime.
- Slower evening with a bottle: The Rendezvous on Page Mill.
- Group dinner, shareable menu: La Corneta for volume, Bistro Demiya for a smaller table.
Downtown Palo Alto is not finished reshuffling. The Cal Ave side of the story is a separate conversation, and several of the concepts above will look different by the holidays. For the next few months, though, this is the working map.
If you own a home in one of the neighborhoods feeding downtown and are thinking about how the changing tenant mix, foot traffic patterns, and the city's next round of development decisions might touch your block specifically, that is a conversation worth having early. Adela Gildo-Mazzon works with Palo Alto homeowners on exactly that kind of question. Request a confidential home valuation to start.
