Palo Alto's oldest restaurants

Restaurants come and go quickly in Palo Alto. Downtown rents are among the highest in the region and a place that is packed one year can be gone the next. That makes the survivors worth knowing. A handful of kitchens have fed the city for more than half a century and a longer list has passed the 25-year mark. Most are not fancy. The oldest are soda fountains, a charcoal burger stand and an ice cream shop, which says something about the town's long dry history.

Every place on this page was confirmed as operating in October 2026 through its own website or a verified page in our business directory. Founding dates come from the businesses themselves unless we say otherwise. Where a business has moved or changed hands, we say so.

A timeline of the survivors

The 1920s: two creameries

Palo Alto Creamery, 566 Emerson Street

The Palo Alto Creamery says it opened in 1923 and that while the names and faces have changed, its reputation has not. It is a classic diner with a soda fountain and its own bakery, which makes the breads, burger buns and pies. Breakfast is served all day. The fountain makes milkshakes, malts, sundaes, floats and a New York style egg cream. It opens daily at 8 a.m. and belongs to the same small local group as Reposado on Hamilton Avenue.

Peninsula Creamery, 900 High Street

The Peninsula Creamery was founded in 1923 by John Santana II and J.B. Howell. The Santana family has owned it alone since 1936. For decades it was a working dairy that ran home delivery with nearly 60 trucks at its peak and supplied Stanford and local high schools. The dairy plant on Alma Street closed in 1987. The family had opened the High Street dairy store in 1970 and that counter carries the business today, serving breakfast, lunch and milkshakes.

The two creameries are linked. The Peninsula Creamery ran a 1950s-style soda fountain at Emerson Street and Hamilton Avenue for many years. That corner is now the Palo Alto Creamery, run by a different operator. The Santana family still owns the land and says the lease requires the tenant to remain a 1950s-style fountain that mixes shakes in metal cans.

Midcentury: burgers, ice cream and a coffee house

Kirk's Steakburgers, founded 1948

Kirk's tells its story on its website. Founder Bill Sincere and his wife, known as Kirk, came west from New York after World War II. With a loan from his mother he rented land on El Camino Real, built a small stand and found a butcher to grind steak for his patties. The first Kirk's opened in 1948 and early customers included Stanford students. Today's Palo Alto Kirk's is on Middlefield Road in Midtown, with sister restaurants in Campbell and Santa Clara. It still cooks over open charcoal, still lets guests add their own condiments and still makes its shakes in house.

Rick's Ice Cream, since 1956

Rick's calls itself a Palo Alto ice cream tradition since 1956. Rick Payne bought the shop in the 1970s and gave it his name. He sold it in 1991 and the Khosla family ran it from 2012. By January 2026 the founders of Pints of Joy, a Sunnyvale ice cream company, had taken over. The case holds about 48 rotating flavors, roughly a third of them Pints of Joy recipes.

Saint Michael's Alley, 1959

Saint Michael's Alley opened in 1959 as a coffee house named for the London alley where that city's first coffeehouse opened in 1652. Its history page credits the early Alley with helping launch Joan Baez, Jefferson Airplane, Ken Kesey and members of the Grateful Dead, among others. Our Palo Alto in the 1960s page covers that scene. Stanford graduates Michael Sabina and Jennifer Youll bought the business in 1993, redesigned the space and moved the kitchen to seasonal menus. It is now a dinner restaurant on Homer Avenue.

The 1970s and 1980s

Sundance The Steakhouse, 1974

In 1973 Bob Fletcher bought a small restaurant near Stanford. With a partner he opened the Sundance Mine Company in December 1974. His son Galen started there as a dishwasher in 1980, left a job at Ernst & Young to join his father in 1991 and now owns the business. The family later rebranded it as Sundance The Steakhouse. It serves prime beef, slow-roasted prime rib and seafood on El Camino Real and still runs a weekday lunch.

Hobee's, 1974

Hobee's describes itself as serving fresh, friendly breakfast and lunch since 1974. Its Palo Alto branch at 4224 El Camino Real keeps daytime hours. The coffeecake is the signature side.

MacArthur Park, 1981

MacArthur Park opened in 1981 beside the Caltrain station. The building is older than the restaurant: a Julia Morgan design that served families of World War I soldiers as a Hostess House. Our Hostess House history tells that story. The menu centers on barbecue and California comfort food, much of it from a mesquite grill.

Sushi House, 1988

Sushi House at Town & Country Village was founded in 1988 by Kenji Ueki and the late Masahiro Nagamine. It says it has served from the same address for more than 35 years, with nigiri, chirashi, udon and teriyaki at lunch and dinner.

The 1990s class

A cluster of current favorites crossed the 25-year line recently:

• Palo Alto Cafe, 1996. A family-owned Midtown cafe that roasts its own coffee.
• La Bodeguita del Medio, 1997. A Cuban-inspired restaurant and rum bar on California Avenue whose tagline reads "A little Cuba. A lot of Palo Alto. Since 1997."
• Caffe Riace, 1997. A family-owned Sicilian-style trattoria on Sheridan Avenue with an outdoor piazza.
• Mediterranean Wraps, 1997. A falafel and shawarma counter on California Avenue that calls itself a Palo Alto hit since 1997.
• Evvia and Cafe Pro Bono. Evvia has served Greek food on Emerson Street for about three decades. Cafe Pro Bono near California Avenue says it has served the neighborhood for more than 30 years.

Just behind them come Tamarine on University Avenue (2002), Thaiphoon on Emerson Street (2003) and Coupa Cafe, a family-owned cafe group dating to 2004.

Why so few old restaurants survive

Two forces shaped this list. The first is rent. University Avenue turns over constantly because space is expensive. The second is history. Palo Alto was a dry town for most of its first century, with no public drinking downtown until May 1971. Our history of Palo Alto's alcohol ban explains why. Cities with old taverns and saloons tend to have old restaurants attached to them. Palo Alto's oldest survivors are creameries, a burger stand, an ice cream shop and a coffee house instead.

The city also lost some long-running names in recent years. The Old Pro sports bar closed in June 2022. Its space on Ramona Street reopened as The Pro in January 2026. Our history of University Avenue covers more of downtown's changes.

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