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About this blog: 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 jo... (More)

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Mike's Cafe to reopen soon in Palo Alto

Uploaded: Jul 25, 2018

The owner of Midtown Palo Alto's longtime Mike's Cafe plans to reopen a new-and-improved version of his restaurant in the next two months.

Mike Wallau temporarily closed his eponymous restaurant at 2680 Middlefield Road in January for a major renovation. In 2017, he had taken over the adjacent site of the former Peninsula Hardware with plans to expand.

"We ended up pretty much having to redo the whole space — all the electrical, wiring, plumbing was so outdated," Wallau said. "Everything is brand new."

For 23 years, Mike's has served humble comfort food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The menu will largely be the same as before, Wallau said, though with a larger kitchen, the restaurant will be making more in house, including pasta, bread and pizza dough. There will also be a full bar and outdoor seating.

Wallau, who was born and raised in Midtown and still lives a few blocks from the restaurant, said customers have been repeatedly calling and stopping by to ask when he'll be open again.

Stay tuned for a firm opening date.

Comments

+ 6 people like this

Posted by Demand the same from everyone, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood,
on Jul 25, 2018 at 12:50 pm

Will he have enough parking spaces at his location? What impact will his opening have on traffic? Will he provide housing for his employees?
The same demands made of Stanford/Google/Facebook should be made of him. After all, even one new car trip into the city is too many. [A portion of this post has been removed.]

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+ 52 people like this

Posted by rsmithjr, a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis,
on Jul 25, 2018 at 1:30 pm
rsmithjr is a registered user.

Demand the same from everyone,

I am always a bit puzzled that when someone tries to make clear improvements to a building or business, some people want them to go even further to providing everything under the sun.

Restaurants are difficult businesses. We have seen too many leave Midtown in the last few years.

Mikes' deserves our support!

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+ 31 people like this

Posted by Midtown, a resident of Midtown,
on Jul 25, 2018 at 2:19 pm

Looking forward to its reopening, it has been missed. We hope they return to the full menu as some of our favorites vanished when it was last altered.

It will be nice to walk to dinner once again and have a glass of wine without worrying about driving home.

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+ 10 people like this

Posted by Brutus, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood,
on Jul 25, 2018 at 5:30 pm

[A portion of this post has been removed.] Palo alto always talks about wanting local retail, yet it seems that city then gives in to every complaint to prevent the location from opening. There is the restaurant on California Avenue (former chef at the French laundry) was put through the ringer. He then got the okay to open. And then there was a last minute appeal over a parking space. Then there is the fitness facility in downtown north. Got the okay to open and boom-- two appeals filed.

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+ 1 person likes this

Posted by Menu, a resident of Midtown,
on Jul 26, 2018 at 11:42 am

I really like Mike's and am anxious for it to re-open as we miss it. But I am so disappointed to hear the menu will be largely the same. While I like their food they need more variety. Seems like the menu has been mostly the same for 10+ years.

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+ 1 person likes this

Posted by chris, a resident of University South,
on Jul 26, 2018 at 11:51 am

The appeals of the fitness center at Addison and Alma have been dropped.

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+ 7 people like this

Posted by Novelera, a resident of Midtown,
on Jul 26, 2018 at 7:27 pm
Novelera is a registered user.

@Menu: I find your complaint makes no sense. You like Mike's food, but you want him to change it? It seems to me there are enough restaurants in Palo Alto with sky-high prices and very, very off-beat types of food. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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+ 6 people like this

Posted by Bunyip, a resident of Adobe-Meadow,
on Jul 27, 2018 at 6:49 am

Look forward to the council requesting a low income housing contribution from Mikes. Like Stanford, they too are responsible.

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+ 3 people like this

Posted by midtowngrl, a resident of Midtown,
on Aug 12, 2018 at 5:10 pm

glad to hear mike's renovation is almost complete.
let's hope the city doesn't put up any more barriers!

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