Cal Ave After the Repave: Which Businesses a Car-Free Street Rewards

"Our Saturdays and Sundays were slower than our Tuesdays and Wednesdays," Square Pie Guys founder Marc Schechter told Palo Alto Online, explaining why the Detroit-style pizzeria at 369 California Ave. would close after service on Friday, Oct. 30. He said his four other locations in San Francisco, Oakland, Campbell and Walnut Creek all get dinner and weekend rushes. Palo Alto didn't, even though catering there was going well.

The closure lines up with the rest of this fall's news on the street. Since cars left the block between El Camino Real and Birch Street, the street has started favoring certain business formats. The businesses on their way in and the rules the city adopted this year both fit that pattern.

The format question Square Pie Guys couldn't answer

Schechter gave two reasons in the same interview. First, he thinks the car-free street played a part, because his other shops have strong street frontage. "If you heard about us online or saw us in your DoorDash app … being able to drive by and be like, 'Oh, that's that place I heard about' … I think it really does play a big part," he told Palo Alto Online.

The second reason matters more for anyone watching the street. He said restaurants that succeed on Cal Ave tend to be either grab-and-go concepts in small shops or full-service restaurants, and Square Pie Guys fell somewhere in between. In August he tried a full-service pop-up called Bar Pie Guys in the Palo Alto space. He called it "really successful," but said turning the whole business into a sit-down restaurant would be too big a step.

Square Pie Guys opened in September 2025 in the former Local Kitchens space. The street layout it opened into was already settled by then. The City Council made the closure permanent on March 10, 2025, and the city installed entrance bollards, colored paving, planters and plantings from April through June 2025, according to the city's Car-Free Streets project page. A pizza shop that, by its founder's account, depended on people driving past to notice it opened on a block where nobody drives past.

The new arrivals fit the walk-up model

The next tenants line up closely with the first half of Schechter's formula. Two are bakeries, and the third is a coffee shop known for its outdoor seating.

Croissante is moving into the former Antonio's Nut House, the Cal Ave dive bar that closed in 2020. Owner Sean Kang told Palo Alto Online in September that the space likely wouldn't stay empty much longer. Founded in Santa Clara in 2023, with a Los Gatos location added in 2024, the chain is known for cube-shaped croissants, croissants filled with fresh mango, and danishes filled with spinach artichoke dip. Late November is a target. As of early November, no opening day has been announced.

Arsicault, the San Francisco bakery founded in 2015 by CEO Armando Lacayo, is planning its Palo Alto location in a new mixed-use building near California Avenue. Its menu sticks to classics like chocolate, almond, and ham and cheese croissants. Its Cambridge Avenue address is a block over from the car-free strip, close enough to share its morning foot traffic.

Backyard Brew is the familiar one. It had been a fixture on the street since 2016 and has been closed since February 2025 over permit issues. Owner Ryan Khalil told Palo Alto Online he had hoped to reopen last summer, but permitting took longer than expected. He plans to reopen about two months after permits are issued. No reopening date has been announced. Its reputation rests on casual outdoor seating, plenty of room, and drinks like the Nutella mocha. That kind of appeal suits a street people walk rather than drive.

Each of these businesses sells something people can carry, in a small space, mostly in the daytime. That's the format Schechter says works on Cal Ave. These shops don't need drive-by visibility, because their customers are already on foot.

The street's longest-running daytime draw follows the same pattern. The California Avenue Farmers Market at 400 California Ave. runs every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., year-round and rain or shine, according to operator Urban Village Farmers' Markets. Santa Clara County's 2026 certified farmers market list shows the same schedule.

City Hall is investing in the full-service half

The other half of the formula is full-service restaurants, and that's where the city has focused this year.

Anyone who walked Cal Ave in the last days of September saw the street looking bare. Every parklet had been taken down for a repaving scheduled for Oct. 1 and 2, the Palo Alto Weekly's Around Town column reported. The city said on social media that new outdoor dining standards would take effect once repaving was done.

The City Council adopted those standards 6-1 on June 1. Restaurants that want streamlined approval can choose from three pre-approved designs:

• A roofless parklet
• A cabana with a sloped roof and overhangs
• A pergola with a flat roof and no overhangs

Custom designs are still allowed but go through a longer review. The city's Outdoor Dining Program page has the Cal Ave pre-approved plans and application materials.

The point of standardizing was to make restaurants willing to invest. "These guidelines, especially the pre-approved parklet designs, provide a clear framework, streamlined permitting and the certainty the restaurants need to confidently invest their own capital into long-term outdoor spaces," Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce CEO Charlie Weidanz said at the June 1 meeting, as quoted in the Weekly.

The restaurants that spoke in favor are the full-service kind Schechter described. At the June Council discussion, the owners of iTalico, Terun and Zareen's supported keeping Cal Ave a pedestrian street, Palo Alto Online reported. Zareen's head of operations said foot traffic had grown and customers were staying longer. Maico and Franco Campilongo, co-owners of iTalico and Terun, curated the classic car display at the May 28 launch of Thursday Live, the city's free concert series on the street. The series ran monthly through September and ended the season with a Saturday Halloween and Oktoberfest event on Oct. 31. The city's Thursday Live page lists no dates after that.

Not every full-service owner agrees. The co-owners of La Bodeguita del Medio wrote to the city that the mix of bikes, e-bikes, scooters, pedestrians, deliveries and outdoor dining had at times made the street congested and unsafe. They proposed one eastbound car lane from El Camino Real to Birch Street, with Cambridge Avenue turned into a one-way street in the opposite direction. The Council showed no interest in reopening the question of car access.

What's still open on the block

Two things will decide how the street looks this winter, and neither is settled yet.

The first is the parklets. As of the end of October, no restaurant had publicly confirmed rebuilding under the new designs. The Palo Alto Ledger reported on Sept. 28 that the city hadn't announced when applications would open. The first new cabanas and pergolas will show which restaurants are willing to put their own money into the outdoor model the Chamber described.

The second is bikes. Staff first proposed thermoplastic bands across the street to slow fast riders without banning them. The Council asked for more and voted to have staff develop a bike-free alternative. Council member George Lu, who had argued most cyclists ride carefully, cast the one no vote. Minutes from the city's Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee show staff confirmed the request was for a design with no bicycle access. No date has been announced for that design or for installing the bands.

The street's daily rhythm is easier to see. Cal Ave is now a place people reach on foot, and the businesses arriving are built for that: a croissant shop in the old Nut House, a coffee shop waiting to reopen its patio, a second bakery around the corner, and a farmers market every Sunday morning. The full-service restaurants have a new set of parklet designs and a freshly repaved street to build on.

Changes on a commercial street can affect the homes and rentals around it, from how far tenants are willing to walk for coffee to which features belong in a listing description. If you own property near California Avenue and want to talk through what the street's changes could mean for leasing, upkeep or a future sale, Robinson & Co is glad to help. Contact Us.