San Carlos: Restaurant Ratio

Back in March I wrote about Redwood City’s “Suburban Restaurant Row,” where I tested my theory that every third storefront along Broadway offered food. Stretching from El Camino to Main Street, I walked every block, counted every storefront and building and, sure enough, 34 out of 90 businesses were food-related. At the time, I mentioned that San Carlos felt the same way, with restaurants everywhere, and on a nice fall day, I took a stroll to check it out.

Defining the downtown in Redwood City was easy, but not so in San Carlos. I found it difficult determining which blocks to include. While I did walk or drive the full length of Laurel from San Carlos Avenue to Eaton, my final decision is to include only 3 (long) blocks, starting at San Carlos Avenue and ending at Arroyo. I will, however, point out those restaurants currently operating from Arroyo to Eaton, just to give you the largest range possible of eating establishments to choose from.

The first block of downtown Laurel, extending from San Carlos Avenue to Cherry, houses 40 storefronts, of which 13 are food-related. On the east side, you start with Starbucks, which is next to Bullpen Deli, which is next to House of Bagels. An alley separates these three from Chocolate Mousse Bakery. Also on this side are Nino’s Gourmet, New York New York Deli, Siamese Kitchen, and my favorite teahouse, The English Rose. On the west side, you have Foodville, La Boulangerie, Taqueria Mi Ranchito, Plantation Coffee Roastery, and the newest kid on the block, Pilita Mediterranean Grill.

Block 2 starts at Cherry and works its way down to Olive, where I found 39 storefronts, with 12 of those serving food. On the east side, which is heavily represented with European cuisine, is Speederia Pizza, followed by my personal favorite Piacere, then a soon-to-open Asian restaurant (replacing Laurel Street Café, whose owners have returned to France), Donut Delite (a fave with the older crowd), Santorini Mediterranean, Ristoranate Spasso (the best lavender crème brulee ever), Kaigan Sushi and La Tosca. Across the street is the ever-popular Town, soon-to-open Cask wine bar, Cowabunga Creamery (serving the delicious local Marianne’s brand ice cream), and Giuliana’s Ristorante Italiano.

The last block, from Olive to Arroyo, counts 8 culinary businesses out of 19 storefronts. The east side has only two: Yan’s Garden and Broiler Express. The west side is up and coming, with the new Foodvile/Bianchini’s set to open, Red Mango opening a franchise, Starbucks, Vanilla Moon Bakery (which I wrote about here), 888 Ristorante Italiano, and Ozuma Japanese.

In these three blocks, which total 98 storefronts, a whopping 33 serve food. Just over one-third trying to garner your business and satisfy your hunger. The majority of these have been in business for 10 or more years and seem to be holding their own, staying true to their initial vision. Newbies are creeping in, but seem to be carving out a niche, like Cowabunga Creamery which replaces the old ice cream shop in town and caters to youth, and Spasso which is the only game in town for tapas, that I know of.

Once you pass Arroyo, the pickings get slim, but are some of the best bets, particularly The Refuge and Micha’s. The Refuge is a wine pub with a chef that makes his own charcuterie and pastrami. They serve great international beers and have a constant crowd. Micha’s, at the very end of Laurel, almost to Eaton, has great barbecue and jazz every Friday and Saturday night. Other restaurants on Laurel outside of the downtown radius are: Gracie’s Delectables (near Arroyo); Cantina (between Morse and Brittan); Flower Drum, Big Joe’s Café, Rumi (next on my list of restaurants to try), Oxford Street Chinese, and New Canton (between Laurel and Greenwood); Absolute, Crepes, Skinny Sippin (Greenwood to Howard); and La Hacienda (Howard to Belmont).

Total count: 46
Cuisines: American, Mexican, Thai, Italian, Mediterranean, Chinese, Japanese, British, Greek, Persian