Why SF restaurants are running for the burbs

This column originally ran in the Off Menu newsletter, where you’ll find restaurant news, gossip, tips, and hot takes every week. To sign up, visit the Standard’s newsletter page and select Off Menu.

If there’s one thing that could coax a hip bar owner to the burbs, it would be a deep pleasure, the likes of which he’s never experienced: a world rid of meter maids. “I’ve been running bars and restaurants for over 20 years in San Francisco, and there are services you forget exist — like free parking,” says Justin Lew, co-owner of Horsefeather, drunk on the novelty of the swath of lined asphalt outside his latest establishment.

Horsefeather — one of Nopa’s cooler bars since opening ten years ago on Divisadero Street — debuted in July in the Town & Country Village strip mall in Palo Alto. The pleasant but decidedly not-cool location didn’t stop Lew from joining the litany of restaurants, coffee shops, and bakeries that, in the past few years, have chosen to open outposts outside of San Francisco. (Wild Seed, Boichik Bagels, Boba Guys, and Gott’s Roadside are also at Town & Country.)

Lured by developers catering to former city residents who fled for chiller (but warmer) places, San Francisco’s best restaurants are migrating. In June, Craftsman and Wolves debuted in Mountain View. Last week, Square Pie Guys popped up at its first location outside of SF and Oakland, in Campbell. And the town of Walnut Creek is waiting with bated spaghetti breath for Original Joe’s to open its monster 9,000-square-foot space Thursday. 

These follow previous businesses that have flown the coop. In 2023, Cow Hollow-based Mexican restaurant Flores opened a third location in the Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo. That same year, Greek counter-service darling Souvla opened to instant success at the Marin County Mart at Larkspur Landing; meanwhile, Andytown Coffee Roasters, Barebottle Brewing Co., Burma Love, Che Fico, and Robin all opened at Menlo Park’s new “resort-style campus.” (Though it is officially called Springline, I would like to suggest it change its name to Little San Francisco.)

Most of the above have landed in new developments — sweeping spaces compared to their diminutive birth spots in the city, requiring a kind of Alice in Wonderland shape-shifting. There are splashy fountains and palm trees and paved public courtyards and a lot of inoffensive beige. 

Lew, who also owns Last Rites off Duboce Park, and used to run Future Bars, one of the city’s preeminent bar groups (Bourbon & Branch, Rickhouse), was clearly ready for a change. He knew he’d be catering to a different audience, which is why Horsefeather in Palo Alto is equally a restaurant, serving up fried chicken with macaroni and cheese, miso linguine, and the expected pretty cocktails infused with bergamot and salted cardamom. The wood-paneled interior feels a bit like a midcentury diner, complete with booths. The staff isn’t lacking for piercings, but unlike at the city location, there’s not a male bartender sporting a half shirt that barely grazes the nipples.

Though the Peninsula’s Horsefeather hasn’t been open long enough to really take stock, Lew says, it’s so far, so good. “Palo Alto feels more supportive. People introduce themselves. We have room to breathe.” What else is different? “Well, there are children, which is something we don’t get in SF, where we’re known as a date spot. The other day, I noticed that there was a person changing a kid’s diaper in a booth. And I was like, ‘Huh.’ That’s something I’ve never had to deal with.”

As for the parking — I get it. When I visited Horsefeather in Palo Alto, I slid right into a front-row spot. There was no undercurrent of SFMTA fight-or-flight, which was more calming than any shot of mezcal. I bravely left my jacket sitting in full view in the front seat. Hell, I probably could have left my laptop. “I can pull in the back and unload my truck,” Lew says. “And I don’t have to worry about a thing.”

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