Palo Alto: After 36 years, Il Fornaio restaurant, a tech favorite, is closing
Two upscale, see-and-be-seen Il Fornaio restaurants are ending their tenure this month, including the Palo Alto location — a prime spot for years for Silicon Valley power breakfasts and deal-making dinners.
After 36 years, that Cowper Street restaurant will shut its doors Sunday night. The Beverly Hills Il Fornaio closed a week ago after a 43-year run.
“Both locations were fixtures in their communities for the last four decades but unfortunately are closing as their leases conclude,” the company said in an announcement. The news was first reported by Palo Alto Online.
For the Palo Alto restaurant, the era from the 1990s through Dot-com 1.0 was a heady time, with tech titans huddled over tables and whispered talk of deals and the next new thing. David Packard. Steve Jobs (sometimes on in-line skates). John Doerr. Jim Barksdale. John Sculley. David Kelley. Guy Kawasaki.
A 1997 Mercury News squib called Reality Check summed up the scene that played out on early weekday mornings: “Price of buying a venture capitalist a power breakfast of juice, eggs and coffee at Il Fornaio in Palo Alto: $10. (Price does not include tax, tip or the VC gaining control of your company.)”
That Il Fornaio long ago stopped serving breakfast. The restaurant’s final hours of service will be noon to 9 p.m. today and Sunday at 520 Cowper St., Palo Alto.
“We are saddened that we will be saying goodbye to many of our wonderful employees, many of whom have been with us for decades, while some will be moving to our other locations in California,” the company statement read.
Founded as a baking school and retail bakery in Italy in the early 1970s, Il Fornaio launched its dining concept — chef-driven, white-tablecloth restaurants with a regional Italian focus — in the 1980s. The original, which opened in 1986, is still operating in Corte Madera, where the restaurant group is headquartered.
Il Fornaio still owns restaurants in more than a dozen California cities plus Las Vegas. Besides Corte Madera, the company’s other Northern and Central California locations are in San Jose, Santa Clara, Mountain View, Burlingame, Walnut Creek, Carmel, Sacramento and Roseville.