A local standby for steaks and Persian cuisine has relocated to downtown Palo Alto, while a new offshoot of a popular boba tea chain is now serving up tea-inspired soft serve alongside its drinks at Stanford Shopping Center. And a new meal delivery service that’s expanded to the Peninsula, Everytable, aims to make nutritious food affordable and accessible at price points that vary by ZIP code.
Arya Steakhouse moves to downtown Palo Alto
The husband-and-wife team of Mike and Fera Hashemi opened Arya Global Cuisine in Cupertino in 2007, and it became known for its kabobs with sides of basmati rice and belly-dancing performances. The menu focused on Persian cuisine but also included some Italian specialties from executive chef Mike Hashemi, who spent years living in Italy.
In 2012, the couple opened a second location of Arya in downtown Redwood City, which eventually became Arya Steakhouse. Instead of Italian cuisine, seafood towers with crab legs resting on beds of ice and a list of halal, dry-aged steaks accompanied a menu of Persian kabobs and stews, including the herbaceous green ghormeh sabzi and fesenjoon flavored with pomegranate and ground walnuts. In the “sides” section, a selection of polo, basmati rice flavored with ingredients like dill and lima beans, is listed next to steakhouse standbys mashed potatoes and truffle fries. Eventually, the Hashemis sold their Cupertino restaurant and focused on this multicultural concept that’s now relocating to Palo Alto.
Arya Steakhouse’s new home at 140 University Ave. has housed notable projects, including Tam Tam Restaurant from the Tamarine team, steakhouse Palo Alto Grill and sake bomb-serving Miyake. Fera Hashemi hopes that under her family’s leadership, the space will become an upscale dining destination for all. She says that the diverse menu suits a variety of diners, and Arya serves an entirely halal menu. “We want to be a high-end restaurant for everyone,” she says.
Arya Steakhouse had its soft opening Aug. 9 and will eventually be open for lunch and dinner seven days a week.
Arya Steakhouse, 140 University Ave., Palo Alto; 650-304-3119. Instagram: @aryasteakhouse.
Rabbit Rabbit Tea expands to an ice cream shop
Rabbit Rabbit Tea first arrived in California with a boba tea stand inside Westfield Valley Fair in the summer of 2018. The company started out by opening boba stores in Taiwan and has since expanded to China, Hong Kong, Japan and the U.S.
Rabbit Rabbit Cream, its new sister store that opened last month at Stanford Shopping Center, sells boba tea drinks and soft serve ice cream inspired by their most popular boba tea flavors.
Soft serve flavors currently include Thai Tea, Kyoto Matcha, Iron Buddha (oolong tea) and Buckwheat Milk Tea, which is a non-caffeinated and non-dairy flavor. Customers can opt for a waffle cone or cup, and can add toppings such as toasted marshmallow or Oreo cookies. The store sells fruit tea, classic milk tea and drinks such as Cr?me Brulee Milk Tea that are unique to the Rabbit Rabbit franchise. For indecisive customers who love both boba tea and soft serve, Rabbit Rabbit Cream’s boba parfaits combine boba, milk tea soft serve and toppings to create a layered dessert.
Rabbit Rabbit Cream plans to rotate its soft serve flavors every month and sell savory snacks in the near future. The store is open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Rabbit Rabbit Cream, 78 Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto. Instagram: @rabbitrabbitcreampa.
Everytable aims to make nutritious food accessible across the Peninsula
Delivery services launch constantly in Silicon Valley, and most of them advertise increasingly rapid drop-offs and exclusive products from the country’s most popular chefs.
But few companies are founded by a recovering “wealth addict” profiled in the New York Times who say they are making fresh, nutritious food accessible to everyone.
CEO Sam Polk, a former hedge fund trader, started Everytable after leading a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that addressed food insecurity by distributing free groceries and providing nutrition education. He quickly learned that busy families relied on fast food because they lacked other affordable and convenient options and started envisioning a company that might offer nutritious meals in South L.A. and other areas dominated by fast food.
Everytable recently expanded its delivery services across the Peninsula, and the company’s main selling point is nutritious food at low prices. Entrees feature lean proteins and vegetables alongside grains like pasta and rice, and wraps, salads and snack boxes are also available. The menu draws influences from different cuisines and recently included both an “Egg Roll in a Bowl” and carnitas tacos.
The New York Times labeled Everytable “The Amazon of Quinoa Bowls,” as Polk aims to keep prices low through production on a massive scale and integrating his business’ supply chain. The company launched in Los Angeles and has now expanded into Northern California and New York. It looks to bring its retail stores, which are already open in Los Angeles, to the Bay Area in the future.
The company’s focus on equity has led to some unexpected practices, including a pricing model that varies according to neighborhoods’ median incomes. For example, the “Southwest Chipotle Chicken Bowl” was listed at $8.75 before fees in our Palo Alto office’s ZIP code. The same dish cost $7.50 in 95122, located in East San Jose.
The Everytable University program recruits franchisees from marginalized communities and secures loans for its graduates that cover the costs of owning a franchise. The Pay it Forward initiative allows customers to purchase meals that are donated to others.
Whether or not Everytable succeeds remains to be seen — it’s hoping that partnerships with restaurants like Compton’s Trap Kitchen, which developed a curry chicken bowl for the service, will produce food that satisfies various palates (a spokesperson says that Bay Area partnerships are coming soon.) Despite the company’s focus on food justice, salaries for some posted jobs are near minimum wage, like a San Jose delivery driver position offering $18/hour, though it promises full insurance (Everytable has not yet responded to a request for comment on employee wages). Everytable will also need to continue scaling to make its offerings affordable for the area’s lowest-income residents.
Peninsula residents can now order from Everytable through its website.
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