State Street Market opened at 170 State St. on September 7, 2021, for outdoor dining and takeout. Opening week offered Banks & Braes, Murdoch's, Grains & Greens, Ostro and Tin Pot Creamery. Bao Bei and el Alto, the anchor restaurant from chef Traci Des Jardins, were announced to follow, and Little Blue Door was named among the tenants for the opening period.
Today the market's food stall page lists nine counters. Little Blue Door is the only name left from that first roster. In its first two years, the market brought in well-known chefs from outside. Since then it has mostly grown through operators who were already working inside the building, and that shift explains the hall you walk into this fall.
The 2021 roster, five years later
Palo Alto Online's 2024 look back at the market said nearly every food stall except Murdoch's and Little Blue Door had been replaced in an overhaul during a temporary closure in early 2023. Since then, Murdoch's bar space has also changed hands.
| Opening-era name | What happened |
|---|---|
| el Alto | Closed in September 2022 after about six months. Cetrella took the anchor space after roughly a year of vacancy |
| Tin Pot Creamery | Closed with the company's Peninsula scoop shops at the end of 2022. The Penny Ice Creamery arrived in 2023 |
| Ostro | Off the market's website by January 2023 |
| Banks & Braes, Grains & Greens, Bao Bei | Gone in the 2023 overhaul |
| Murdoch's | Came back after the 2023 relaunch. Laughing Monk Brewing took over the bar space in March 2026 |
| Little Blue Door | Still on the current stall page |
Little Blue Door has a link to the first era. Palo Alto Online's 2023 coverage linked the stall to the Michelin-starred chef behind Ettan. That made it part of the original pitch, a 20,000-square-foot hall built around recognized names.
The 2023 reset changed how the hall was run
Food service in the first version of the market ran through a contract with Palo Alto-based Bon Appétit Management Company. In January 2023, Los Altos Community Investments, the market's developer, ended that contract. According to Palo Alto Online, the change led to 45 layoffs filed with the state, and the hall closed for several weeks in February and March while new vendors built out their spaces. Robert Hindman, LACI's managing director, gave a general explanation to the Los Altos Town Crier: "Successful food halls evolve with culinary tastes and in response to customer feedback."
The first two replacements LACI named were Konjoe Burger and Little Sky Bakery. Little Sky had been running pop-ups at the market since the previous October. The hall reopened on March 20 with only two vendors operating and filled up over the following months. By late summer, the Town Crier listed Orenchi Ramen, Konjoe Burger, Ikuka, The Penny Ice Creamery and Little Sky Bakery in the revamped hall. Little Blue Door had reopened, Murdoch's was due back August 30, and newcomers The Good Salad and Bibo's NY Pizza were joining.
Orenchi Ramen moved into the market from Redwood City on March 19, 2023. Owner Kuniko Ozawa told the Los Altos Town Crier that the smaller kitchen made rushes harder and that the menu was cut roughly in half to fit it. The shorter ramen menu at the State Street counter comes from that space limit.
Growth now comes from tenants already inside
After 2023, open stalls increasingly went to businesses that were already there.
- Ikuka, 2024. The Japanese pastry shop opened in June 2023 and announced in 2024 that it would close. Its sales shifted to La Casa Mia locations and to Orenchi Ramen, one stall over in the same hall.
- Miko's Calitalia, October 2024. The pizza stall Bibo's NY Pizza had run for about a year went to Miko's Calitalia, a Sicilian and "Neapolitan-ish" pizza concept from Konjoe Burger owner Joey Camacho, who had run the stall next door.
- Orenchi Sushi, late October 2024. Orenchi Sushi opened in the corner spot where Little Sky Bakery had been. The market describes it as the newest concept from Orenchi Group, which has run Japanese restaurants in the Bay Area for more than 15 years.
- Little Sky Bakery, same period. Little Sky didn't leave when it gave up the corner. It moved into a larger space inside the hall.
Camacho explained his reasoning to Palo Alto Online when Miko's opened:
"The Konjoe Burger has been pretty successful and definitely well received by the community. And I think just given our successes there, it made sense for us to try a new concept in the marketplace."
The current stall page shows the effect. Four of its nine links carry two names: Konjoe Burger and Konjoe Eatery, and Orenchi Ramen and Orenchi Sushi. Miko's Calitalia is no longer on the page. When an operator does well at this address, the market's recent pattern is to give it more room there.
The two newest arrivals came from outside
The 2026 changes run the other way. Both new names are businesses with followings elsewhere, and both picked this hall on purpose.
Laughing Monk Brewing soft-opened on March 6, 2026, in the former Murdoch's bar space. President Sam Ghadiri told Redwood City Pulse that the market appealed to him as part of a community-oriented, walkable downtown with trivia and live music already on the schedule. He described the bar as a complement to the food vendors around it. The market's site lists its hours as 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, so the bar keeps the hall open later than a lunch counter would.
Coffeebar is the other one. Founder Greg Buchheister told the Los Altos Town Crier that he wanted a Los Altos location because residents value quality, and he described the choice as mutual: "a bit of Los Altos also chose us." Later Town Crier reporting described the plan as a pastry-production center with indoor and outdoor seating. The opening date has kept moving. Spring 2026 became the end of September, and The Almanac then reported early October. In mid-October, Coffeebar's own locations page still listed Los Altos as "Coming October 2026," with no hours posted. Check that page before you plan a morning around it.
Who's at the counters going into the holidays
These are the stalls currently linked from the market's food and beverage pages:
- Konjoe Burger
- Konjoe Eatery
- Little Blue Door
- Little Sky Bakery
- The Good Salad
- The Penny Ice Creamery
- Orenchi Ramen
- Orenchi Sushi
- Laughing Monk Brewing, listed on the market's menu page
The holiday calendar brings more people downtown. The Los Altos Village Association's 23rd annual Holiday Stroll is Friday, November 13, from 5 to 9 p.m., and participating shops are still listed as to be announced. Small Business Saturday follows on November 28, with an activity at Veterans Community Plaza from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Holiday Market takes place at State Street Market itself on Thursdays, December 10 and 17, from 4 to 8 p.m., with local gift vendors, live music and visits with Santa.
In Los Altos, the businesses that stay often say as much about a block as the ones that open. If you're thinking about what that means for a home a few streets from State Street, VKG Real Estate Group can walk you through how downtown activity shows up in local values. Ask us for a free home valuation.
