Yippee! Another boutique hot drink shop. We have a Starbucks and Palo Alto Cafe and now a milky tea shop. What would be very nice is another sit down restaurant so that we can walk to dinner, have a glass or two of wine, and then walk home. Mike's has lost some of its charm and somewhere for us locals to have dinner without having to go downtown would be ever so nice. It seems all the nice restaurants only want to go to North Palo Alto. We miss out all the time.

Midtowner--it is called the free enterprise system. This place is probably too small for a sit down restaurant and a full kitchen. Plenty of places on California avenue you could walk to. There really have never been too many sit down restaurants in midtown anyway. Anyway, I am sure people will complain about too much traffic no matter what opens

We are thrilled that Teaspoon is setting up shop in Midtown! I agree with Midtowner. I think there's a hugely untapped market in the Midtown area for family-friendly places to eat and just enjoy the company of other neighbors. We often walk to the Midtown shopping area for ice cream, coffee, and dinner. We'll be sure to add Teaspoon to our list of regular haunts. A local pizza joint like Spot or Howie's would definitely be a great addition!

One more thing to add... With the loss of so many kid-friendly places in recent years (think Palo Alto Bowl), we really need to inject some fun back into our community and provide our youth with safe places to gather. The only options kids have now are Rick's, Mountain Mike's, and Mitchell Park (and I'm talking about the park itself - not the community center, which scares off the quieter, less extroverted kids). My kids are already looking forward to the opening of Teaspoon. Like Rick's, I think Teaspoon will add some youthful vibrancy to the area and give the kids a safe place to gather and relax for a bit (before they have to go home and tackle hours of homework).

@Midtowner - clearly you have never tried milk tea. Few people order this hot, even on cold winter days (as if Palo Alto ever really gets cold). We are glad to see some diversity coming to Midtown.

I pass through mid-town frequently but rarely stop at my bank, Philz or Century Liquor or even that baker's place that's now an optical dispensary. There's very little parking unless you invade Safeway's lot or use a side street. The take-and-bake pizza place and the Thai place probably do OK. But the breakfast place struggled. Expecting a sit-down dinner place for families without parking and reasonable prices is a bit much for that place. They'd never be able to make rent with being full and noisy every day. Mid-town is probably better suited to fast casual and take-out than a sit-down place which requires wait staff *and* parking for them, something downtown is struggling with as it is.

Since a new store is opening, does this mean that the new owners have decided against razing this part of the shopping center and building housing? Do the store owners know that this site is due for demolition?