Downtown Los Altos Is Growing From the Inside This Fall

"I walked by that space and noticed these big redwood trees and the white picket fence and the 1920s Craftsman home," Jo Lerma-Lopez told the Los Altos Town Crier about 145 First St. "I took pictures of it … then forgot about it."

She came back to it when the space opened up for lease after House on First, which used to be Bumble, closed in 2022. More than two years of construction later, that Craftsman is about to become the third location of LUNA Mexican Kitchen.

The rest of downtown's fall news follows the same pattern. There are no new buildings. The changes come from proven operators taking on more inside the village's existing rooms. A food hall vendor runs two stalls under one name. A Truckee coffee company is making its Los Altos café the bakery for its whole Bay Area network. A San Jose restaurant family chose a century-old house on First Street over a new storefront. Downtown is getting deeper, not wider.

State Street Market keeps reshuffling its stalls

State Street Market at 170 State St. turned over two of its spaces in the first half of the year. On March 6, Laughing Monk Brewing soft-opened where Murdoch's Bar used to be. It serves drinks, not food. In mid-May, Miko's CALiTALIA became Konjoe Eatery. Owner Joey Camacho told the Town Crier that the Eatery and Konjoe Burger next door share a brand but run as separate operations.

Look at the market's current roster and the doubling-up is easy to see. Two of the nine listed stalls are Konjoe, and two are Orenchi.

So almost half the hall's food counters belong to two operators who each decided one stall wasn't enough. For anyone deciding where to grab lunch, the practical point is that a familiar name in the hall may now have a second counter with a different menu. Konjoe Burger and Konjoe Eatery each list their own hours on the market's site, so check the one you want rather than assuming they match.

Coffeebar's Los Altos café comes with a second job

The next addition at 170 State St. is Coffeebar. The Almanac reported on Sept. 15 that it expects to open in early October. The opening date has slipped before. An earlier Town Crier story aimed for spring 2026, and a later one said the end of September. On Sept. 19, WhatNow noted that Coffeebar's own website still said September even as the Almanac expected October.

Greg Buchheister, a former competitive skier, founded Coffeebar in Truckee in 2010. It opened in Menlo Park in 2018, then in Redwood City and Sunnyvale. Los Altos will be its fourth Peninsula café. The detail that matters most for downtown is what happens after opening. According to the Almanac, the Los Altos location will eventually be the main pastry production facility for every Bay Area Coffeebar. During the soft opening, pastries will come from the Menlo Park café instead.

That changes how State Street Market fits into the region. A café that bakes for Menlo Park, Redwood City and Sunnyvale sits at the start of the supply chain, so Los Altos is the source rather than the last stop on a delivery route. The drinks will be familiar to anyone who has been to the other locations: lattes, cappuccinos and cold brew made from beans roasted at Coffeebar's Reno facility. The current seasonal menu includes a pistachio rose mocha, a marzipan latte and a yuzu caramel latte.

LUNA's Craftsman is close, but not confirmed

LUNA is the clearest example of an operator expanding into an existing building. Lerma-Lopez and her husband and co-founder, John Lopez, opened the first LUNA on The Alameda in San Jose in June 2017 and a second at Campbell's Pruneyard Shopping Center in 2019. Before restaurants, they ran a record label and a retail store in San Jose.

Converting the Craftsman took longer than planned. LUNA first expected to open in early 2025, and Lerma-Lopez told the Town Crier that construction problems pushed the date back. "We've had a great rapport with the city, and they've been helpful," she said. "Some things just take time." She described the patio as bringing "the energy of Valle de Guadalupe or Napa Valley." The name stands for Local, Unrefined, Natural, Authentic, and the menu has no additives or preservatives.

The latest local forecast was early September. As of the end of September, we haven't found an announced opening date. LUNA's own locations page still lists only The Alameda and The Pruneyard. If you want to sit on that patio, check LUNA's site before you walk over to First Street.

Main Street's turnover follows the same pattern

The changes on Main Street this year happened within the existing storefronts. Haru opened May 22 at 325 Main St. with sushi, Japanese kettle rice and izakaya-style dishes. A few doors away, Tre Monti served its last customers May 2 at 270 Main St. and closed permanently. The Clickaway Los Altos Service Center at 357 Main St. has also closed, and its customers are now directed to a Campbell location.

Taken together with the food hall, 2026 has been a year of swaps inside the same blocks. One restaurant leaves a dining room, another moves into a storefront, and a stall gets a new name and menu. The village footprint hasn't changed, but much of what's inside it has.

October's best evenings all fall in one week

Downtown's fall calendar is unusually concentrated. Three of the season's main events happen within eight days, and the end of the farmers' market season falls in the middle of them.

1. Friday, Oct. 23, 6 to 9 p.m. The 2026 Witches & Warlocks Wine Stroll comes downtown with 16 wineries and eight bands on its program.
2. Thursday, Oct. 29, 4 to 8 p.m. This is the last Downtown Los Altos Farmers' Market of the season at 200 State St. The season began April 30. Some spring coverage gave Oct. 15 as the closing date, but the current listing says Oct. 29.
3. Friday, Oct. 30, noon to 4 p.m. At A BOO-tiful Downtown Halloween, trick-or-treating starts at noon, followed by games and activities at Veterans Community Plaza from 2 to 4 p.m.

Those are three evenings downtown in one week, and the last State Street market night is the day before the Halloween afternoon. The calendar quiets down after that until November:

• Friday, Nov. 13, 5 to 9 p.m. The 23rd Annual Holiday Stroll. Its lists of participating shops and musicians are still marked "TBD."
• Saturday, Nov. 28. Small Business Saturday, with an activity at Veterans Community Plaza at Main and State streets from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

If Coffeebar opens on its early October schedule, the wine stroll will be the first big downtown evening with a new café operating inside State Street Market.

The one plan that would add something new is still a proposal

There is one downtown idea that would add new space rather than refill existing rooms, and it is still at the drawing stage. The city has been taking public input on turning parking plazas one, two and three into a public park with an above-ground parking garage. Five concepts went out for outreach. Four pair a park with a three-level parking structure. The fifth improves the existing plazas without a dedicated park. Underground parking was dropped from consideration in February.

The city's goal is for the concepts to keep parking net-neutral or add to it. According to the city's July-stage reporting, downtown currently has about 1,300 public off-street spaces and 400 on-street spaces. The 50th community input session at the Los Altos Community Center's Grand Oak Room drew sparse attendance, and the city held a 51st open house there on Sept. 17. We haven't found a council decision or construction timeline since then. The designs remain proposals, and project updates are posted at losaltosdowntownpark.org.

For now, downtown this fall looks much like it has all year: more stalls from the same operators, a café that will bake for other cities, and a 1920s Craftsman with a new restaurant almost ready.

Ryan Gowdy has lived in Los Altos his whole life, and he follows these blocks as a neighbor as well as a real estate advisor. If you're thinking about what downtown's changes could mean for a home near the village, Ryan Gowdy offers a complimentary home valuation and consultation.