A Guided Tour of Palo Alto

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Downtown

From Stanford, take Palm Drive east until it becomes University Avenue, Palo Alto's Sunset Boulevard. Forget about finding a parking place near the main drag. Instead, head for the underground parking lot at City Hall (250 Hamilton Avenue), located only a few blocks from the downtown action, which on warm nights includes street concerts, drum circles and more than a few aggressive panhandlers.

Along with drawing spare-change artists, downtown Palo Alto has also become a mecca for glamour restaurants. The best known include Wolfgang Puck's Spago (265 Lytton Avenue) and Evvia Estiatorio (420 Emerson Street), which fans claim is the top Hellenic outpost east of Athens.

You'll also find the lovingly refurbished Stanford Theater (221 University Avenue), a movie house featuring classic films from Hollywood's golden era. On many nights, the theater's restored Wurlitzer organ is put through its paces, brought to life as part of the $6 million renovation that turned the once-dying single-screen establishment into a thriving hub for film noir aficionados.

The most popular activity in downtown Palo Alto may be the Friday and Saturday night strolls . These jaunts involve starting at one end of University Avenue and walking the mile or so length of this thoroughfare, dashing in and out of the side streets, until Middlefield Road, then walking back on the other side of the street. Along the way, you can stop for coffee, browse for knick-knacks or take a peek at the menus posted in the windows of University Avenue's countless restaurants. The ultra-competitive battle for food dollars on this street has led to constant turnover. Although there are some stalwart operations, like MacArthur Park (27 University Avenue), the general rule is that if you don't like the choices, come back next week and check out the new selections.

One of the most frantic scenes you'll find is at Miyake (140 University Avenue), a raucous sushi bar where visitors, mostly students, are greeted by a team of waiters and cooks screaming at them in Japanese. On busy nights the line is so long that it spills into the street, forcing patrons to risk life and limb while waiting for raw fish and seaweed.

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