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Category: Openings and Closing

New bars/restaurants or ones that have recently closed

Town Burger Pop-up Draws San Carlans

Town Burger Pop-up Draws San Carlans

The following is reprinted, with permission, from a blog post from long-time San Carlos resident Mark Maxwell, who describes the one-day “Burger Pop Up” hosted by Town on Saturday. Town has remained closed since the beginning of the lockdown, and this pop-up event was a one-time opening, however on their website the restaurant reports that they are working hard on perfecting a full-service pickup and delivery program and will open soon. No doubt their service will be very popular when…

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What’s Open for Takeout in the Lockdown?

What’s Open for Takeout in the Lockdown?

As every Bay Area resident is acutely aware, there was a shelter-in-place ordered for all residents on March 17th, lasting at least until May 31st. We are all staying at home and are only allowed out for “essential business.” Among other more important things (like health care and social services), this does include the ability to get food at grocery stores and order takeout or delivery from restaurants. The City of Good Eating attempted to contact every one of the…

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Georgia On My Mind…

Georgia On My Mind…

No, not that Georgia. San Carlos has expanded its already impressive breadth of cuisines with one almost completely unique to the Bay Area in Tamari, offering Georgian food.  If you’re not familiar with Georgia (the country) or it’s cuisine, you’re not alone. According to the restaurant’s owner, there isn’t much of a Georgian community in the Bay Area, so he had to find a chef from Pennsylvania to open this restaurant (it’s the same owner as the earlier Agora restaurant, but he…

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Laurel Street Turnover, Part I – tratt.

Laurel Street Turnover, Part I – tratt.

The year 2020 started off with two new restaurants at prime locations on Laurel Street. Taurus Steakhouse recently opened at the old Piacere location (stay tuned for the review), and earlier this month Trattoria da Vittorio at 617 Laurel Street reopened as tratt. (yes, the lower case and period seem to be officially in the name). Even though it has a new chef, new menu, and new owners, the similar name has unfortunately caused a bit of confusion, implying a…

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Double the Pho, but less Coffee

Double the Pho, but less Coffee

This week saw one restaurant change and one close. The Fortune House Chinese Restaurant at 1050 El Camino is now Pho 82, a Vietnamese restaurant that, as its name suggests, focuses on pho (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup). They also serve other noodle soups and various other Vietnamese staples. This entry basically doubles San Carlos’ Vietnamese/Pho restaurant capacity, joining Pho Vinh on Holly Street. Neither restaurant has an ideal location, so we’ll have to monitor both on their progress. We may…

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Can Delicious Crepes redeem an unlucky location?

Can Delicious Crepes redeem an unlucky location?

In what has been a difficult location for restaurants with three failures in a little over a year, a newcomer is giving 601 Old County Road – right behind the San Carlos Caltrain station – a go at it. Although it breaks from the trend of the previous three Indian restaurants, it does remain a vegetarian restaurant, although with completely different cuisine. Delicious Crepes – also known as V&V Delicious Crepes – is a regular at a number of the…

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Piacere to Close

Piacere to Close

Along with Town, Piacere has been one of the main anchors on Laurel Street for almost three decades. According to a story published today in the San Mateo Daily Journal, Piacere closed as of September 29th. The article states that owner Tony Gundogdu confirmed that he sold the restaurant and that new owners plan to soon open a steak place in that location. Piacere was home to many great lunches and dinners for our family over many years, and Tony was…

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One Less Slice of Pizza

One Less Slice of Pizza

Nino’s Pizzeria, unfortunately always an also-ran in the San Carlos pizza scene, has closed its doors. Butcher paper now covers the windows, their phone is disconnected, and a change of ownership sign is in the window. For many years Nino’s struggled to find it’s niche among the plethora of pizza choices in town, and it appears that the twin behemoths of Blue Line and Pazzo have crowded out other pizza locales (Applewood and Speederia both closing within the last two…

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Can Mayan Find Its Niche?

Can Mayan Find Its Niche?

For about 25 years, 1163 San Carlos Avenue was the home of Sneakers Restaurant, a mainstay of the San Carlos restaurant scene and a normally buzzing family restaurant and sports bar. Last year, Sneakers moved to 650 Laurel Street, leaving vacant it’s fairly large space around the corner and leaving San Carlans wondering what would take it’s place in a still prime downtown location. There was a very curious — and very brief — appearance of a restaurant called Tacos…

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Nick the Greek Open at Prime Laurel Location

Nick the Greek Open at Prime Laurel Location

In the spring we reported that the former Shellie’s Miniature Mania location at 732 Laurel Street had a sign announcing that Nick the Greek, a Bay Area “Souvlaki and Gyro House” would be opening soon. The casual eatery had its grand opening at the beginning of August, and so far seems to be fairly popular among San Carlans. Although not as falafel-saturated as ten years ago, San Carlos does have three other Greek/Mediterranean places with similar food, including Santorini right across the…

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