This story first appeared in the Friday, April 2, print edition of the Daily Post. To get all of the local news first, pick up the Daily Post in the morning at 1,000 Mid-Peninsula locations.
BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
Word Count: 675
After 75 years in business, Ann’s Coffee Shop in downtown Menlo Park will be serving its last pancakes and cups of coffee on April 19.
Owner Nicki Poulos, who has run the diner for the past 13 years, said …
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This is truly sad. A great locals hangout that had a lot of character, not unlike The Oasis. What’s going on in this town that we’re getting rid of places like this.
The reason why there closing doesn’t add up. If the new owner wants to do something else with the land, that’s going to have to go through the City, so why not keep a rent-paying tenant until the City approves the new building?
All the people moving to the Peninsula in the last 20-years don’t care about traditions or what has been there for decades before them. I see nothing but people who made massive amounts of money on IPO’s who run for local government or county government positions who feel they are entitled to tell people who actually were born and raised there how the localities should operate.
They are happy to pay astronomical amounts for properties, put their kids in private schools at $30K plus a year,
and then complain about how they aren’t getting everything they wanted or expected.
Smart folks have decided to leave or have already left. Kalifornia is circling the drain and the Bay Area is leading the way.
what I read some where else that doesn’t add up is the landlord kicked out and institution and sold the building to another tenant who will also be an eatery but failed to name the new owners. I bet you if Covid 19 had never reared its ugly head Menlo Park wouldn’t be reading about a storied restaurant force to close by the buildings landlord. All I can think is all those months the restaurant had to remain close maybe the owner of Anne’s coffee shop was behind in his rent or the landlord raised the rent and neither party could come to an agreement to stay open. What ever the reason it was probably all about greed and money. If this building does turn into another eatery I hope all the patrons that walked through Anne’s front door all these years making the restaurant into what it became that everyone in Menlo Park boycotts this new restaurant and continues to frequent the only american food places in the city left like stacks, Jeffery’s and Cooks. May these place live on forever. Shame on this landlord for what he did I hope his investment goes belly up. I remember Kens family Restaurnt on El Camino whos owner Ken Cunningham ran the business for over 40 years and one day decided he wanted to retire. He sold the restaurant and the the property to another eatery Called Henry’s Steak House. Well it closed shortly after it opened then Jeffery’s Hamburger Place took it place on the property and and all these years later even after having to compete with Cooks seafood and being a retro diner is still standing tall after all these years. Menlo Park patrons know a good place to eat when they see one and its a shame they saved Keplers book store from closing and could have saved foster freeze and the oasis but they city chose not to. And once again they let the city down by not saving another great restaurant that’s been around since the 40’s. Makes me sorry I call Menlo Park Home.
Thank you Nicki for a great family style restaurant. So sad to see you go!
Bummer. Another step towards a cutsey, contrived town of chic bistros and pointless “hobby” boutiques.
Little places like this give our community a small-town feeling, a place where everyone knows one another and there is a sense of belonging. My fear is that these small businesses will be replaced with look-alike corporate chain stores or restaurants with no character but the ability to pay higher rents. I wish there were a way to preserve our community’s small businesses.
If you want Menlo Park and so many places across the United States and the world to go back to being all about communities, family and friend gatherings, and not about national problems, selfish desires, or a need to gang up over a dispute of subjective proportions… all you have to do is go back. I stopped using smart phones years ago, and I have been over social networking for nearly a decade. There will always be a need to get the latest and the greatest, but you don’t have to have either one. You have to take the technology out of your life that consumes your time. After all Technology is supposed to be like the calculator and the oven, if it becomes an additction we are using it wrongfully. Remember when watching more than 1-2 hours a day was considered bad for your health? Now, we are all watching TV, per-se, for most of the day. And we stop watching, we want to base our lives around what is expressed by ourselves and others through our own technology. That has to stop. We have to ignore the naysayers, and get on with our lives. COVID is not the first year for millions of people in the U.S. that has been a time of self-isolation with technology. Once we are separate from publishing everything about ourselves, we can start to learn the values of respect, and gradually push ourselves off the ports of self-interest.
I agree, and I am tired of teenagers and 20-somethings becoming CEOs instantly and created such tech that messes up the existing system. The system was designed for people to go through stages in life, and now with the tech addiction, everyone wants instant gratification.
Perhaps Anne’s was not doing well as a business in a premium location since it had very limited operating hours and did not take credit cards.
I am not aware of any other restaurant in the entire area that has been able to thrive in the last few decades that was not open in the evening and only accepted cash.
This was a nice restaurant that did not want to adopt to any changes of business in the current century (not just in Menlo Park). I wish the owner well but if you wish to operate this way, you need to also own your building.
Think about how many other restaurants can afford premium locations with such limited operating hours and have not even started accepting credit cards (which have been ubiquitous for a very long time).
I am not a young person but would often not go to there because I didn’t want the hassle of also having to go to the ATM.
Anne’s coffee house did have an atm on the second floor I guess where the bathrooms were. Maybe you were to lazy to walk all the way to chase bank or Great Western Savings. Or did it poop you out to walk a couple blocks to Bank of America if its still there near the corner of Santa Cruz Avenue and El Camino.
I’m surprised it has taken this long for this place to finally close. I ate there once or twice and never saw more than a few customers at a time. I look forward to seeing something new there so all the ‘I’ve lived here longer than you and nobody should ever change anything about my town’ people can walk by and scowl at the young people enjoying it.