Local Kitchens, a new micro food hall, is serving meals on California Avenue after its opening on Tuesday and an opening celebration this weekend.

Micro food halls give customers the opportunity to mix and match cuisines from different restaurants, while dining under one roof, according to the Local Kitchens website.

While the California Ave. location has limited indoor and outdoor seating, the food hall features an online ordering system best suited for pickup and delivery. 

This is the fourth Local Kitchens location to open up in the Bay Area, the others being situated in Cupertino, San Jose and Lafayette, with Mountain View and Menlo Park locations coming soon.

The facility held opening festivities on Saturday, complete with free samples, kids’ activities, games, a petting zoo and music.

Nine local restaurants have outposts within the hall. These nine include Señor Sisig, Curry Up Now, SAJJ Mediterranean, MIXT, The Melt, Wise Sons, Proposition Chicken, Humphry Slocombe and Rooster & Rice. 

“This is a really great opportunity for everyone to try … different brands and different places, within a [single] kitchen”

— Naresh Anadkat, data analyst and data scientist for Local Kitchens

CEO and founder of Local Kitchens Jon Goldsmith said one of the restaurant’s goals is to help support local businesses hit hard by the pandemic. 

“We talked to a bunch of San Francisco restaurant owners who were struggling during the pandemic and looking for new ways to expand and make more revenue,” Goldsmith said. “And we wanted to help them grow into new cities where we could bring their food, people would be excited about it, and they could make extra money.”

The closure of the previous restaurant at this location, The Counter, left a vacancy at 369 California Ave. according to Palo Alto Online, that Goldsmith seized. Many of the restaurants located within Local Kitchens have been waiting for the opportunity to come to Palo Alto, according to Goldsmith.

“We know that it [Palo Alto] is a city that’s a foodie city,” Goldsmith said. “People like to eat great food here. And a lot of our restaurant partners have been trying for years to come down here. So it was a perfect fit.”

Naresh Anadkat, a data analyst and data scientist for Local Kitchens, said the hall’s culinary diversity gives customers the opportunity to try many different types of foods in one sitting — in addition to aiding large groups with varying palates. 

“This is a really great opportunity for everyone to try … different brands and different places, within a [single] kitchen,” Anadkat said.

ADORABLE ANIMALS — Local Kitchens' opening celebration included free samples, a petting zoo, balloon animals, and more. According to Jon Goldsmith, CEO and founder of Local Kitchens, this array of activities is much like the diverse selection of cuisines offered within the food hall. "We have so many different kinds of cuisines, it's hard to even start," Goldsmith said. "So if you have a group of people, come on by." Photo: Bella Daly