Coming soon to Menlo Park: Burmese cuisine, a brewery, a new coffee shop, an Italian restaurant and market, and a cafe/wine bar.
That's according to a Jan. 20 announcement by Presidio Bay Ventures, the developer behind Springline, the office, retail and housing development being built at 1300 El Camino Real.
The new restaurants and cafes are:
- Andytown Coffee Roasters, a San Francisco coffee roaster based in the Outer Sunset neighborhood and founded in 2014, set to open in late summer 2022.
- Burma Love, considered a "contemporary younger sister" restaurant to Burma Superstar, famous for its tea leaf salad and mohinga, while offering "a handful of newer, more seafood-centric dishes," according to its website. It has locations in San Francisco's Mission District and downtown. It is set to open in fall 2022.
- Che Fico, an Italian taverna in San Francisco's NoPa neighborhood, according to its website. The group behind it, Back Home Hospitality, plans to open a Northern California-influenced Italian restaurant and an Italian market featuring local produce, prepared foods, a fish and meat butcher counter, salumi and a walk-up gelato window at Springline in late summer 2022.
- Barebottle Brew Co., a San Francisco brewery with taprooms there and in Santa Clara, and partners with local homebrewing groups and emphasizes the use of local ingredients, according to its website. It will be Menlo Park's only brewery. The current plan is to offer a large, pet-friendly indoor taproom space and a retro beer truck outdoors in the development's central plaza. It is set to open in late summer 2022.
- Canteen, a casual wine bar and cafe by Greg Kuzia Carmel, who launched Camper in downtown Menlo Park. "We look forward to welcoming you all to another fun place to pass the time with friends + strangers," Carmel said in a Dec. 14 Instagram announcement. "I am thrilled and excited to be a part of this next chapter of life in Menlo Park at the Springline community. It will be an honor to continue to add to the rich history of this wonderful place," he said in a statement on the Springline website.
Slated to open at Springline are Canteen Next Door, a wine bar on Oak Grove Avenue with small plates and grab-and-go options, and Canteen Café, along El Camino Real, which will offer coffee from Sightglass Coffee and wraps, sandwiches, salads and baked goods. It is set to open in April or May.
"We continue to gain momentum with award-winning San Francisco dining staples and best-in-class companies at the top of their respective industries who are choosing to call Springline home," according to K. Cyrus Sanandaji, managing partner at Presidio Bay Ventures. "Our vision to fully activate this development and solidify a future for downtown Menlo Park centered on sustainability, connectivity, culture and wellbeing has proven to be the right catalyst for our wish list tenants to come on board."
Office tenants listed include software provider Genesys, Symphony Technology Group, international law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, venture capital firm Menlo Ventures and co-working location Canopy.
The 183 one- to three-bedroom apartments under development as part of the mixed-use project are expected to begin pre-leasing in the spring.
The Springline location will be Andytown's first expansion outside of San Francisco, according to Lauren Crabbe, owner and CEO of Andytown Coffee Roasters. "We're super, super excited about it," she said.
Both baristas, she and her husband Michael McCrory founded the coffee shop in 2014, which now has four San Francisco locations, according to its website. The coffee shop's baked goods are inspired by McCrory's Irish roots, and include offerings such as soda bread scones and a "really delicious breakfast sandwich," Crabbe said.
Menlo Park also has an avian connection to the coffee brand's San Francisco home. According to Crabbe, one of the signature beverages that Andytown Coffee Roasters offers is called the "Snowy Plover." The beverage is an espresso cream soda, and can come in green tea and caffeine-free huckleberry variants, she said.
Snowy plovers are the "adorable" shorebirds that are found on both the Pacific shores of the Outer Sunset and along the Bay in Menlo Park, she said, noting that the coffee company has in the past partnered with the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory to support snowy plovers.
As for when their Menlo Park outpost might open, she said that they are aiming for the end of this year, but remain "well aware of the supply chain issues affecting construction projects right now."
"I'm curbing my own expectations because of all the challenges facing all industries right now," she said.
Michael Seitz, cofounder and CEO of Barebottle Brewing Co., said he is excited to be opening a brewery in Menlo Park. While he was a Stanford undergraduate years ago, he said, he "always felt like there was a missing element ... like an approachable, affordable place to get a really great beer."
One special thing about Barebottle is that it is constantly cycling through new and unique beers and wines for customers to explore, he said. He added that the brewery plans to have a vintage retrofitted truck with 25 beers on tap that will be part of the development's outdoor plaza, and envisions it as a great outdoor space for events including business meetings, receptions, baby showers or birthdays. "After two years of postponing big events with people, it's going to be an amazing place to gather and share in a safe, outdoor, really fun area with great beer and wine."
Three other leases for restaurant/retail spaces in the development are currently under negotiation, according to Springline spokesperson Stefanie Szeto.
Go to springline.com for more information.
