A Guided Tour of Palo Alto

‹ Introduction . From the South . California Avenue District ›

From the South

Most first-time visitors to Palo Alto head straight for Stanford University. Wrong move. Start at the city's fringes and work your way toward its heart. Take the Rengstorff exit off Highway 101 and continue until you reach the intersection of Rengstorff and Middlefield Road, on the border between Palo Alto and Mountain View. There, the spoils of a long-running war of attrition between several competing Mexican restaurants spill onto colorful paper plates. Bring $10 and pick any place near the corner. You'll leave with money in your pocket and Vesuvius in your belly.

Go north on Middlefield Road, entering Palo Alto near what local residents call Midtown. On the left, you'll spot Cubberly Center (4000 Middlefield Road), a former high school converted into an adult education center. Classes at Cubberly have spawned several local citizen groups that help Palo Alto preserve its reputation as a hotbed of social rest. The popular badminton courses (open to all players on Sundays from 1pm to 5pm) draw Olympic-class competitors, while the always-packed ballroom dancing lessons leave the parking lot jammed.

Continuing north on Middlefield Road you'll find the Midtown shopping district, home to one of the few remaining Co-Op Supermarkets (2605 Middlefield Road), a once-thriving grocery store chain built around the communitarian concept that people should own a piece of the place where they buy food. This idea has died nearly everywhere else, but in Palo Alto it endures.

You'll also want to make time to visit the nearby Victoria Emmons Restaurant (2695 Middlefield Road), a tiny place owned by the woman local luminaries depend on for catering services whenever someone important, like the Queen of England or the President of the United States, comes calling. The restaurant's schedule is irregular (you'll find the constantly changing hours posted on the door), but the food is what a head of state would expect.

Further north on Middlefield Road you'll pass the site of a plaque (at the intersection of Middlefield Road and Marion Street) marking what remains of the old Indian Mounds , home of the Muwekma Ohlone Native Americans who populated Palo Alto long before other settlers arrived. The bones and artifacts found here have been removed, but local legend has it that, on some nights, you can still hear the chants of the Muwekma echoing in the wind.

Make a left on Oregon Expressway, heading west, and watch for signs to the California Avenue business district. In reality, this is the old town of Mayfield, annexed by Palo Alto in 1925 as part of Stanford University's growing hegemony over the area. University officials apparently didn't like dealing with two competing local municipalities, so they helped kill off the least friendly one. Mayfield's spirit of independence lives on, however, most notably in the coffeeshops, bookstores and eateries that dot its main drag, California Avenue.

‹ Introduction . From the South . California Avenue District ›

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