FYI FYI (August 25, 2004)

SOUPER ADDITION ... The San Francisco Soup Company recently opened a restaurant in the University Circle office complex in East Palo Alto. This is the company's first restaurant outside of San Francisco's Financial District. The chain, which offers 12 or more made-from-scratch soups on a daily basis, is the brainchild of owners Steve and Jennifer Sarver, who were inspired by a Seinfeld episode on a popular soup kitchen.

JUST FOR MEN ... Tack the "No girls allowed" sign on the door of this new salon and day spa in Mountain View - it's for men only. Billed as the new barbering experience, American Male offers haircuts, paraffin hand dips, scalp massages, mini facials and even cold beer to men. There's even a TV so men can watch the baseball game while waiting for their spa service. American Male will open its first California store in the San Antonio Mall in September.

COMINGS AND GOINGS ... Palo-Alto based company Maxspeed adds Mark Nachlis to its team as vice president of business development and marketing. Maxspeed manufactures custom hardware and embedded software solutions that replace desktop PCs and mobile PC notebooks. Nachlis is a former senior level sales executive with Sprint Corp. Mark Shaffer, manager of Hyatt Rickey's hotel in south Palo Alto for several years, recently got a taste of what some U.S. military troops are experiencing -- redeployment. With just several days notice, he was reassigned to the Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel & Spa in Santa Rosa, and had to hurriedly pack up and move out of manager's home in the back of the Rickey's property. The new manager in Palo Alto, Dania Duke, has assumed Shaffer's duties.

100 BIKES FOR 100 KIDS. . . The employees of Mercury Interactive, a Mountain View based technology company, donated 100 bikes to the kids of East Palo Alto's Boys and Girls Club earlier this month. The deed came after the company's employees participated in a staff retreat that, among other activities, included building 14 bicycles for "customers" whom they later learned were actually kids at the Boys and Girls Club of East Palo Alto. An inspired employee challenged his colleagues to each purchase an additional bike. After the company matched the number of bikes purchased by employees, there were 100 bikes and accompanying gear to donate. The children were presented the bikes last week, and representatives from local fire and police agencies were on hand to help the kids register their new bikes.

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