As much as I like to be everywhere each week, I am only human, and the one drawback to exploring the city on foot is that I am limited to just what I can see that week while on an 8-12 mile walk. I do try to vary my walks to I cover different parts of the city each week if possible, but especially when things are hopping at a particular site I try to pay it frequent visits. Thus, regular readers will know that right now I’m spending a lot of time visiting Stanford’s Redwood City campus (to monitor the progress of their nine-story medical office building), Broadway Plaza, the Syufy site (east of the freeway, where the Century Park 12 Theatres used to be located), the Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center, the Hampton Inn project, and 112 Vera Ave., where a seven-story affordable housing building is currently underway.

Because I can’t be everywhere on foot, whenever I find myself having to drive in or through the city I keep my eyes open, and even go out of my way to make sure I’m seeing areas that I haven’t walked through recently. Finally, I also receive the occasional tip from friends, neighbors, and even some of you, the readers of this blog. This week I took a long walk that was very different from what I’ve been taking lately, based on some outside information I’d received about things I should be checking into.

First up, reader Sarah directed my attention (twice!) to the fact that the former Mens Wearhouse space in Redwood City’s Target shopping center, which some time ago had been divided in two and then half occupied by Bath & Body Works, now has a tenant for the remaining half: Paris Baguette.

Brown paper on the windows makes it difficult for me to ascertain the progress so far, but the sign above the door clearly identifies the new tenant. So keep an eye out if their cakes, tarts, pastries, breakfast sandwiches, lunch items, etc. interest you.

Sarah also let me know that there was a sign up on the old 5th Quarter Pizza building (which has been remodeled and notably downsized), on Woodside Road over by the Jack in the Box. Accordingly, I went by and took a look at both it and its sibling, the building that for a long time has been home to Bravo Taqueria. I came to the taqueria building first (on the left when viewed from Woodside Road), and peeked in:

As you can see, the space looks about ready to open — although there is no signage on the exterior of the building as yet. Although there are no signs confirming the fact, I am nevertheless 100% sure that Bravo Taqueria is coming back, based on two clues: a picture of Frida Kahlo lying on one of the tables (presumably ready to be hung on a wall), and the fact that the Facebook page cover photo for Bravo Taqueria was updated in mid-November to show this remodeled building. So fans of this popular Redwood City business — which closed in April of 2023 and was supposed to reopen a couple of months later after a short remodel to improve ADA accessibility — can rejoice that finally, after a really extensive multi-year remodel that completely changed the character of the building both inside and out, the restaurant is soon to reopen.

On the heels of Bravo Taqueria, it seems, will be the new restaurant coming to the taqueria’s sister building, just across the parking lot. That building, which for years was home to 5th Quarter Pizza, was also extensively remodeled, after which “for lease” signs went up. But recently those signs came down, and a banner went up:

Bay Burgers appears to be a relatively new business. From what I have learned from poking around on their website, Bay Burgers operated as a two-day-a-week popup in a North Fair Oaks parking lot (on Spring Street, near Douglas Avenue). Their apparent success as a pop-up (they essentially have a perfect Yelp score, marred only by one review from someone who had so much trouble parking that they gave up and never actually tried the place) seems to have caused them to sign a lease on this permanent space on Woodside Road:

The banner proclaims an “early 2026” opening, while Yelp indicates that it is temporarily closed but “scheduled to reopen on January 30, 2026.” Whatever the actual opening date really is, keep an eye out: the online menu (which was for the popup, but presumably indicates the kind of things you’ll find in the new restaurant) on Bay Burgers’ website looks quite intriguing. So far the business primarily has focused on smash burgers and fries, but with a lot of interesting variations and with a couple of additional items to satisfy those not looking for a smash burger.

While on site to take the above pictures, I took one more picture of the eight-unit townhouse development that is now complete — the units are for sale — just across Woodside Road:

I found listings for two of the units online. It appears that the sale of all eight are being handled by a single broker, who has those two listings. These two might be the only two left — and their listings are marked “Pending” — but possibly not, so if anyone reading this is interested, contact Joe Velasco Group. In any case, here is the online listing for 951 Woodside Rd., and here is the listing for 947 Woodside Rd. Both are four bedroom, 2-1/2 bathroom townhouse-style units, with 1,717 square feet of living space. And both are going for what seem to be very reasonable prices for our area: $1.389 and $1.385 million, respectively.

Back in early November I learned from The Daily Journal that there had been a fire at Avenue Liquors in the Roosevelt Plaza shopping center. Between travel and my wanting to focus on the other projects I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this week is the first chance I had to examine the place for myself. I wasn’t particularly interested in the liquor store itself (where, tragically, two people lost their lives), but was more interested in the two businesses to the left that had to temporarily close as a result of the fire: Oh Baby Sushi, and Big Brothers Burgers.

I’ve eaten at Oh Baby Sushi once or twice, but because neither my wife nor I are big fans of sushi proper, our choices there were limited (they had pretty good teriyaki entrees, fortunately). In any case, when I was there on Tuesday a sign on the door indicated that they expected to reopen that very night, and indeed I went by the next day and it did appear they they might be back in business. As for Big Brothers Burgers, though, as of Wednesday they still had a yellow “Limited Entry” notice on their door from the Redwood City building department, indicating that their part of the building was still being evaluated for damage from the fire. Personally, I hope Big Brothers reopens soon; my wife and I enjoy their burgers from time-to-time, and the guys who run the place are always quite friendly. I did peek inside and at least from the front I can see no signs of any problems — but the sight of a ladder and a missing ceiling tile indicated that any problems are likely in the attic space above the restaurant ceiling:

A couple more bits of restaurant news. First, a friend let me know that Yumi Yogurt, now in Sequoia Station, had finally opened, so I went by and confirmed that indeed they are:

Fans of Yumi Yogurt — and I’ve heard from a few! — need fret no longer.

Thanks to Instagram, I was notified that de Vine Wine & Beer is now open for business in the old BottleShop space, at 2627 Broadway:

As you can see from the easel out front, they have a 4-6 p.m. happy hour, with beer going for $5 a glass and wine ranging from $8-$10 per glass. I have yet to give them a try, but I plan to soon: I was a fan of both prior wine bars in this space, and presume that I’ll like this one, too.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that The Yard Coffee had temporarily closed so that they could re-set the bricks in the walkways and just generally spruce things up. That has all been done, and I’m happy to note that The Yard is back open on Main Street, again serving coffee (and other things):

It’s a bit cold outside these days, but when the sun is out The Yard’s yard is still a nice place to sit and enjoy an afternoon (or morning) break. I saw people sitting on the porch of the house where the coffee roasting machine is located, and the house itself may now be open for those wanting a somewhat warmer place to sit. Although I believe the plan was to do some work on the interior of the house, so I don’t know for sure if it is open to patrons yet. If anyone knows, leave a comment. Otherwise, I’ll try to drop by and check.

There’s a lot going on in Redwood City that doesn’t involve restaurants, of course. On Thursday I noticed that there was a large mobile crane on the site of the 112 Vera Ave. project (the seven-story affordable housing building). I didn’t have time to actually stop and look, so I planned to pay the site a visit today (Friday). In the morning, on the way to our Meals on Wheels route (in the heavy fog — what was that about?) I again noticed the crane, reminding me to pay the site a visit after my wife and I had finished our deliveries. Wouldn’t you know it, driving up El Camino Real on our way home from Menlo Park my heart sank when I saw that the crane was gone. I did go by and spend some time looking at the progress made so far, and from what I can tell that crane must have been used to move heavy steel rebar around the site, where it was quickly arranged into a grid:

Normally, where the metal bars intersect they are tied together with steel wire; I couldn’t see any evidence of such wiring, but either it doesn’t need to be done in this case, or that is the next step for the work crew. Either way, the site looks nearly ready for a concrete pour; I expect it to happen in the next couple of weeks.

If you look carefully at the above photograph you’ll notice a large square hole along right side of the foundation. Based on the fact that the top of a stepladder is just peeking out from the hole, it apparently is somewhat deep:

I took a quick look at the project plans after I got back home, and learned that it is to be the bottom of an elevator shaft. The elevator car, of course, won’t go below ground level, but the mechanism extends somewhat below the bottom of the car, and thus there needs to be a hole like this to accommodate that mechanism. The building will have a second elevator towards the front of the building, on the other side (I took these pictures from the alley behind the property); I’ll have to take a close look from Vera Street to see if there is a hole there, too. Finally, I should note that the building will extend almost all the way to the street, where the guys are standing and the trucks are parked in the above photo. The foundation preparation hasn’t extended that far as yet; I presume that is where the crane had been parked. So there is still some additional foundation prep work to be done (at which time there will no longer be a place to temporarily park trucks on the property, unless they park right on the concrete foundation itself…).

I cut through ELCO Yards this week, not to look at the project, but just on my way to another part of town. But of course I noticed a couple of things of interest. First, on the corner of Main and Cedar streets there had been a small two-story building housing Main Street Deli, and next to it, on Cedar Street, there had been a small (804 square foot) house. The deli had closed and both it and the house had been boarded up back when demolition for ELCO Yards had gotten underway, but it wasn’t until last week or this that the buildings were actually torn down. Today there is simply a nice, clean lot with a rather sturdy fence around it:

(A note about the house you can see behind the lot in the above photo: that house, at 1414 Main St., was built in 1910 and was the home of Joseph B. Perry, the Perry of Perry Feeds & Fuel, which was located just across Main Street and of which the metal shed that used to stand there was a part.)

In trying to figure out what was going on with this now empty lot, I was surprised to discover that IQHQ, the company behind the ELCO Yards project, had purchased this plot of land back in January of 2022, with the thought that they may expand ELCO Yards at some point. I was even more surprised to learn that in addition to buying this parcel, they also bought the parcel at 1745 El Camino Real: where BevMo operates today. So far, IQHQ does not appear to have any concrete plans for either site, but if ELCO Yards leases and there appears to be additional demand, don’t be surprised to see construction on either or both of these sites.

While making my way through ELCO Yards, I noticed a new plaque, this one providing some nice background on the historic “Skate” sign and the roller rink from which it came:

I won’t quote the entire sign here — you can either click the above photo and zoom in, or, better, you can visit the sign in person. But I was pleased to see mention of Jim and Suzie Pollard, who purchased the rink in 1969 and operated it for 48 years. I recently received a comment from a Jim Pollard (a son of Jim and Suzie, it seems) who helped operate the rink and who was somewhat disappointed that the family wasn’t notified about the sign’s restoration/recreation.

Walking down Woodside Road this week, I noticed that the 7-Eleven on Woodside at Hess Road is getting some EV chargers (the banners proudly announce this new addition):

I’ll be interested to see how much these chargers get used. At least, by putting them outside an active business like 7-Eleven someone will be keeping an eye on them, and thus perhaps they will be more reliable than some…

Finally, I took a quick walk down Redwood City’s “Candy Cane Lane” — Dewey Street — and was delighted to see the houses on this one-block residential street receiving their usual share of decorations.

One gentleman, who had one of the more elaborately decorated yards, was working out front, so I stopped and asked him where he stored everything in the off season. I was told that he kept it all on-site: in sheds in the back, in the attic, in the garage — anywhere he had room. I would have thought that someone with such a large amount of seasonal decor might keep it in a mini-storage, but good on him: he lives with his passion.

If you or your kids enjoy Christmas decorations, do give Dewey Street a visit. Oh, and go at night: I find the place fascinating even in the day, but of course after dark the place really shows its glory.