Bistro Vida’s owner is ready for an encore – opening a new cocktail bar in a spot made famous by the Grateful Dead

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Our fourth annual Peninsula Restaurant Week is almost here! From April 19-27, celebrate the Peninsula’s restaurant scene with special prix fixe menus and offers at dozens of local eateries. I’m catching up with three restaurateurs participating in Peninsula Restaurant Week. This is the first interview in this year’s series.

For more information on Peninsula Restaurant Week, go to peninsularestaurantweek.com.  

After 26 years since opening Bistro Vida, owner Ali El Safy is “having a new baby.” The due date is in June, and El Safy has already picked out her name: Loretta.

“I want next door to be a little bit more free, more casual, fun,” he said. “Bistro Vida is like my oldest son – he went to Cornell, he’s academic. My youngest son goes to (University of) Oregon – very free and hippie personality. So I based this identity of the two places on my two sons.” 

El Safy opened Bistro Vida in downtown Menlo Park in 1998, specializing in classic French dishes like cassoulet de toulouse and boeuf bourguignon. Running Bistro Vida is not just about food for El Safy – it’s also about community. El Safy has given back to the fire district, local schools and more, started a weekly outdoor French market that’s been operating since 2021, and state Sen. Josh Becker and the California Small Business Association recognized Bistro Vida as the Small Business of the Year in 2021. Now, El Safy is looking forward to adding more nightlife in Menlo Park with a bar connected to Bistro Vida called Loretta in the former Harvest Furniture space next door.

“There’s really no place to go for younger people when you think about it,” he said. “This was also for everybody to come and really enjoy it. Even the kids who have grown up and moved away and come home for the holidays, sometimes there’s nothing for them to do.”

While El Safy doesn’t know anyone named Loretta and said he picked the name for its old, classic feel, he visualizes Loretta like this: “Natural-looking hair, very earthy, very hippie, easy-going, maybe vegan, maybe vegetarian…She’s just free.”

Slated to open in June, Loretta will offer classic cocktails as well as seasonal specialty cocktails, beer, wine, snacks, tapas and charcuterie, said El Safy. Guests will be able to order food from Bistro Vida and use Bistro Vida’s outdoor seating. While Loretta will not be offering happy hour, El Safy says he aims to keep prices affordable, with a typical cocktail priced around $15-$16. 

“I see some places now charge $20 for drinks,” he said. “That’s too much. Most of the drink is ice.” 

El Safy’s two sons will also be involved with Loretta, he said, with his older son helping on the business side and the younger son managing as the head bartender. 

“He can stay up late because maybe I like to go home early, so he can close,” El Safy said.

El Safy plans to have Dead Night on Wednesdays, when the playlist will be entirely that of the Grateful Dead, who began their career in the same building as Loretta at Magoo’s Pizza Parlor. On other nights, music will depend “on the mood,” El Safy said.

“I could play the Eagles,” he said. “I could play Fleetwood Mac. I could play hip-hop. It can be anything.” 

Loretta is currently undergoing construction, with workers laying down hardwood floors, installing a marble bar countertop and hanging chandeliers. The largest undertaking was plumbing, El Safy said, as the original building only had one toilet. Bistro Vida and Loretta are now connected via two large doors, and the dishwashing areas are also connected. Loretta’s tentative hours will be Wednesday through Sunday 4 p.m. to 1 a.m., El Safy said. 

“The vibes are very loungy, kind of chic city, but casual neighborhood-y, comfortable seating, a comfortable place to go,” El Safy said.

El Safy grew up in Egypt and attended French school. At 15 years old, he left for London by himself despite barely speaking English. He didn’t like London, so he took the train to Paris and started a job making pomme frite.

“I was around potatoes all day long,” he said. “Sacks and sacks of potatoes.”

He worked in restaurants in Paris for four years before moving to New York, where he continued to work in the restaurant industry. When asked why he left Paris for New York, he said, “A woman.” Why he left New York for California? “A woman,” he said. 

He worked in restaurants in San Francisco before heading south to work at La Tour, a French restaurant on University Avenue in Palo Alto. While working at Il Fornaio in Palo Alto, he often would eat at a Mexican restaurant in Menlo Park called La Luna. The owners wanted to retire and asked El Safy if he would buy the restaurant, so he and a friend at Il Fornaio decided to take over in 1994. They kept the name but introduced tapas and live Spanish music.

“We took over the whole sidewalk, and we threw parties every night,” he said. “It was crazy. And people were smoking cigarettes so there were cigarette butts everywhere. And then people complained to the city. It was fun.”  

Not long after taking over La Luna, El Safy came across nearby ice cream and hot dog shop Stanford Ice Cream. The owner was ready to retire, and El Safy decided to take over the place, transforming it into Bistro Vida. 

“I always wanted to do something really French,” he said. “When people think about romance and they think about food, they always think about Paris.”

El Safy decided to focus entirely on Bistro Vida and sold La Luna, which is now Singaporian restaurant Shiok. The two most popular dishes at Bistro Vida are the moules frites (mussels with French fries) and the French onion soup, said El Safy.

“Our mussels are really nice and plump because the Italian family in San Francisco who I buy my fish from, they hand-pick them for me,” he said. “We make the best French onion soup because it’s actually a recipe that I got from a chef friend when I was living in Paris.”

For Peninsula Restaurant Week, Bistro Vida is offering a prix fixe menu for $40 a person. Diners have the choice between French onion soup and salad laitue for the appetizer, moules frites, boeuf bourguignon (beef stewed in red wine with mashed potatoes) and risotto aux saint jacques (scallop risotto) for the entree and tarte tatin (caramelized apple tart) for dessert. 

After Loretta, El Safy said he’s not planning on having any more “daughters.” 

“(I plan to) run the business and continue until I lose interest and I don’t have the energy for it anymore,” he said. “Do other things, but not golf. I don’t golf. Definitely not golf.” 

Bistro Vida, 641 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park; 650-462-1686, Instagram: @bistrovidamp. Open Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5-8 p.m.