Read about a London athleisure boutique coming to town, the closure of a Palo Alto dining fixture and notable accolades for a range of local businesses.
SWEATY BETTY COMES TO TOWN … The London-based women’s luxury fitness boutique Sweaty Betty is set to open at Town & Country Village at 855 El Camino Real on April 21 in the former site of Y&I Clothing Boutique. The “athleisure” brand, which includes running, workout, yoga, ski and dance attire that can be worn outside the gym, has experienced explosive growth across the United States in places like New York’s SoHo district, West Hollywood’s Melrose Avenue and San Francisco’s Union Street, according to the company. The Palo Alto site is its 11th U.S. store and the fifth to open along the west coast over the past 18 months. Ever since Tamara Hill-Norton founded the boutique in London in 1998 to “blur the lines between fashion and fitness,” the clothing line has steadily built up a loyal following, said company spokeswoman Melissa Sgaglione Seganti. Sweaty Betty has become synonymous with a unique “London look” and innovative designs that support an active lifestyle, she added. The brand has been featured on the London Fashion Week runway. The Town & Country location fits the company’s stated goal of opening boutiques in places with a fun vibe — where women spend time working out or grabbing coffee or lunch — rather than at a destination shopping mall. –L.T.
CHANTILLY SAYS GOODBYE … Chantilly, a French and Northern Italian restaurant that got its start in 1974 in Palo Alto, has shuttered, its owners confirmed this month. Chantilly closed its doors on El Camino Real in Redwood City on Saturday, April 1. The restaurant had operated there since 1999, when it relocated from Palo Alto and the owners changed its name from Chantilly II to Chantilly. Kittrell and Gus Talasaz, the original owners, were joined by executive chef and partner Bernabe Oropeza and his wife, Maria, in the early 1990s, according to the restaurant’s website. “We thank the four generations of families, corporations and dedicated patrons who walked through our doors, helping make Chantilly one of the top eating establishments in the Bay Area,” the four co-owners wrote in an email last week, declining to comment further. The two-story building at 3001 El Camino Real afforded Chantilly private dining rooms — where “for over three decades, some of the most significant Silicon Valley deals have occurred,” the restaurant’s website states. A 1994 Palo Alto Weekly review of the second iteration of the restaurant describes the original Chantilly on Ramona Street as a “haunt for high-tech movers and shakers.” “Muckety-mucks from Intel, Intuit, Microsoft, AMD, National Semiconductor, Hewlett-Packard and all the other big names in the Valley were closeted in the private rooms of Chantilly II while the rest of us ate in the main dining room and wondered what deals were being cut behind those doors,” reviewer Laura Reily wrote. –E.K.
BIG BIZ RECOGNITION … A few shout-outs to some area businesses that have been recognized big time: The first accolade goes to Rosewood Sand Hill, Menlo Park’s five-star boutique hotel near Interstate 280. It was named on Travel & Leisure magazine’s website as one of the top 100 hotels in the world. Rosewood came in at No. 37, tying with the Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne, Switzerland. And KQED has put Palo Alto’s Anatolian Kitchen on the map with its popular “Check Please” TV show. The segment on the restaurant, which serves authentic Turkish cuisine at 2323 Birch St., is scheduled to air April 27. And Thrillist.com recently published its “San Francisco’s Most Highly Anticipated Bar and Restaurant Openings of 2017.” Of the 11 establishments mentioned in the article, only one was a non-San Francisco business, and that was Nobu, the Japanese restaurant scheduled to open in June in the Epiphany Hotel, 180 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto. Congrats all around. –D.S.
Compiled by the Weekly staff; this week written by Linda Taaffe, Elena Kadvany and Daryl Savage.
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