TO'A JUST VANISHES
A popular vegetarian restaurant has vanished, practically overnight. The chef, staff, and owners of Sto'a's at 632 Emerson just never returned to work after Easter weekend.
Yet all the tables are set with linens, place settings and glassware. The chairs are arranged with care neatly around the tables. At first glance, it looks as if the restaurant is ready to open for the day's business.
But on closer inspection through the front windows, there are piles of unopened mail, rubber-banded in bundles on the floor just below the mail slot. A City of Palo Alto Utilities notice hangs on a doorknob, indicating gas, electric and water are being turned off. And it's mysteriously dark in the building.
The phone number is still working, as is Sto'a's answering machine, but the machine is full.
"They simply vanished. They didn't leave a note, there's no sign. Nothing," an employee at Richard Sumner Frames, an art gallery next door to Sto'a, said. "People keep coming in here and asking us about Sto'a and we don't have a clue."
Sto'a opened last December at its Emerson location, after moving from West Bayshore Frontage Road, where Palo Alto Joe's once flourished. It opened to much fanfare, with upscale, trendy presentation of entrees, along with lavish decor.
But not everyone noticed Sto'a's closure: Another Palo Alto newspaper just ran a lengthy restaurant review.
PRETTY IN PINK, OR IS IT? . . . Drivers heading south on East Bayshore Freeway are getting a refreshing burst of color when they drive past the former, former site of Sto'a, at 3750 Fabian Way. The building has gone pink. The 4,300-square-foot site, which will become the new location for Kiki's Candy, is now sporting a rosy hue. Kiki's owner Christy Weinstein plans to open "as soon we get all our permits," when the candy shop will move from its current location at 540 Emerson St.
People walking past the building at noon last Friday were mostly positive. "It's definitely pink, but not offensively so. Kids will love it," said one office worker taking a lunch break.
"There's no way you can miss this," another said. "It kind of transforms the whole landscape over here."
A 20s-something woman called it "perky."
Only one person objected. A Palo Alto mother of three, who lives on East Meadow Drive around the corner from the new Kiki's, was not pleased.
"Where's the ARB when you need it?" she asked.
But Palo Alto's Architectural Review Board never had a chance to approve or disapprove the color. "That's because if a building is older we have no control over what they (tenants of the building) decide," said Planning Director Steve Emslie. But he added, "We haven't gotten any complaints."
LA PALERMO OUT, CHICKEN RANCH IN . . . It sounds like the dumbing down of a menu, but in reality it's merely a change of tenants. La Palermo, the charming Italian downtown restaurant at 452 University Ave., is gone. Word on the street is that the owners are off to Sacramento to open a La Palermo there. Their sign remains outside, but the windows are completely covered with brown paper while construction goes on inside.
ALL IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD . . . Also moving out is La Palermo's next-door neighbor, Swenson's Ice Cream at 440 University Ave. An August meltdown is planned. And just down a few streets and around a corner at 530 Bryant St., there is another change. This one, at 530 Bryant, which first housed L'Amie Donia, then La Cheminee, will be the new home of Tridente Restaurant Group. No word yet on what Tridente is, where it's from, or who owns it.
Heard a rumor about your favorite store or business moving out, or in, down the block or across town? Daryl Savage will check it out. She can be e-mailed at shoptalk@paweekly.com.
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