By Elena Kadvany
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I am a perpetually hungry twenty-something journalist, born and raised in Menlo Park and currently working at the Palo Alto Weekly as education and youth staff writer. I graduated from USC with a major in Spanish and a minor in journalism. Though my first love is journalism, food is a close second. I am constantly on the lookout for new restaurants to try, building an ever-expanding "to eat" list. As a journalist, I'm always trolling news sources and social media websites with an eye for local food news, from restaurant openings and closings to emerging food trends. When I was a teenager growing up in Menlo Park, I always drove up to the city on weekends with the singular purpose of finding a better meal than I could at home. But in the past year or so, the Peninsula's food culture has been totally transformed, with many new restaurants opening and a continuous stream of San Francisco restaurants coming south to open Peninsula outposts. Don't navigate this food boom hungry and alone! Feed me your tips on new chefs and eats and together we'll share them with the broader community.
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UPDATE: Chop & Pub officially opened on Monday, Oct. 23.
A new establishment focused on booze and small plates is set to open soon in downtown Mountain View.
Owner Chau Le hopes to open Chop & Pub at 124 Castro St. in the next two weeks. He took over the space after East Street Tapas recently closed. East Street Tapas was the rebranded version of
East Street Tacos, which was previously oyster bar
Shell Shock.
Chop & Pub will replace East Street Tapas on Castro Street. Photo by Elena Kadvany.
Le owns a Vietnamese restaurant, Kobe Pho & Grill, with locations in Dublin and Cupertino, as well as Élyse Restaurant, a modern French-Vietnamese eatery he just opened in San Jose. He said he has long eyed Castro Street as an ideal location.
Chop & Pub will serve craft cocktails with "California style" tapas dishes such as grilled vegetables, Le said.
Job postings describe the establishment as a "gastropub" and "social eatery;" happy hour there will be called "social hour," Le said.
"We want to push that social interaction," he said.
