After 15 years as a Menlo Park hub, mother-daughter team is handing off Cafe Zoë

When Kathleen Daly purchased Menlo Park’s Cafe Zoë in 2008, she just knew the cafe was where she wanted to be, she said. Fifteen years later, she just knew she found the right person to carry it on for her.

Matt Burr, also known as the Neighborhood Pizza Guy, is set to take over Cafe Zoë in mid-July.

Cafe Zoë, named for Daly’s daughter, is tucked into a small stretch of businesses in the Willows neighborhood on Menalto Avenue. Since it opened, the cafe has hosted numerous community events, from live music to National Night Out.

Daly said that she had wanted to leave the business for a while, but didn’t want to close shop without passing it on to someone she trusted.

“I just always knew that no matter what, I would never close it.” Daly said. “I could never close the doors on it, no matter how hard the struggles of small business ownership (are).”

In 2021, Burr came into the picture with his pizzas baked out of a small backyard studio in Atherton. Burr started baking pizzas during the pandemic before reaching out to neighbors through the Nextdoor app, getting a positive response that surprised him. Daly reached out to him nearly two years ago, and since then Burr has made pizzas in Cafe Zoë, Thursday through Sunday, under the name Neighborhood Pizza Guy.

“When I first stepped into the cafe after Kathleen had reached out, it was a really strange feeling like, I felt like I was home and it was my first time visiting,” Burr said. “And if I can continue to provide that experience for other people, that will be what I’m most excited about.”

That home-like feeling apparently extends to Daly’s regular customers. Michael Perez has been lived in the neighborhood for 22 years, before Daly owned the cafe. Perez said that he met some of his best friends through Cafe Zoë, and that he hopes “the vibe is maintained.”

“The main reason I’ve continued to live here is because of this cafe,” said. “It is that sense of community.”

Burr said he never intended to go into food service, but said that it ended up feeling like what he is meant to do, “as cheesy as that sounds.”

Daly struggled to express what the cafe has meant to her without getting emotional, saying that if she talks too much about it she won’t be able to finish. Many of the customers have become long-term friends. However, with Burr, she knows Cafe Zoë is in good hands.

Local residents hope Cafe Zoë will remain a community hub with the change of ownership.

“The right person came along and got what it’s about,” Daly said. “…(People are) sitting outside, knowing each other, high-fiving each other, smiling, talking, laughing, he got that … people looking for community knowing that they can walk down the street and have that kind of environment is special, and I think Matt understood that very well.”

It isn’t just Cafe Zoë that means a lot to locals — regulars also said they apreciate Daly herself. Paul Chua said he has been coming to Cafe Zoë since 2009, and the cafe is a “calm in the storm” of a hectic life in Silicon Valley.

“It’s magical,” Chua said. “The amount of goodwill and community that (Kathleen) fosters is something that you see in movies or read about in books.”

To both Daly and Burr, the most important part of the cafe is for people to find a community. Daly said that while she won’t be at the helm anymore, she’ll be outside Cafe Zoë having coffee with friends. Burr said he felt like a part of a true community through the cafe.

“It really feels like, I don’t know, occasionally like an episode of Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers, where I’m walking down the block and I see my customers and smile and wave, and then I step into my shop and sling pizzas for the day and go home and wake up and do it all over again,” Burr said. “It’s a really cool thing.”

Burr said that he will focus on fusing the menus of Cafe Zoë and Neighborhood Pizza Guy. Currently, Burr offers a special pizza each week of his own creation that he calls “Pizza Lab.” Looking ahead, Burr said that he plans to expand the offerings at Cafe Zoë.

Resident Brian Belding, who working out in front of the cafe on Monday, said that he hopes that the cafe retains its sense of community. The growth of Cafe Zoë has been beneficial, with the addition of pizzas offering the ability to have dinner at his daughter’s live performances in the cafe.

Burr said that he plans to keep the name alive, operating under the name Neighborhood Pizza Guy at Cafe Zoë. It will still offer espresso, tea, pastries and sandwiches alongside pizza, and community events will still be hosted at Cafe Zoë.

Burr mentioned the community poetry readings, an event that is planned by the community, and said the doors of Cafe Zoe will remain open for those kinds of events.

“To have a place that kind of feels like a step away from the grind and from the hustle and bustle where people can just be and exist and interact with each other,” Burr said. “It’s rare, it’s really rare, and so of course, that’s something I will work tirelessly to continue.”