"We are sad to inform you that after 98 years, we have closed all Cook's Seafood locations Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026."
Palo Alto Online reported that this text reached Dan Dowler at about 3 a.m. on Oct. 29. Dowler had worked the counter at Cook's Seafood for 55 years, starting with a job interview on Nov. 1, 1972. The message came from owner Roy Crumrine Jr. It told staff not to drive in the next day because the building was closed.
Menlo Park incorporated on Nov. 23, 1927, according to the Menlo Park Historical Association's timeline. Bill Cook founded Cook's in 1928, so the business was one year younger than the city itself. It closed 13 months before Menlo Park turns 100. On Dec. 4, the city opens its Centennial Celebration with an event called "Shop local! Light Up the Season."
The three changes below show what that name is up against this fall. Menlo Park's history lives in a few long-running counters, and those counters can go quickly.
A Fish Counter Almost as Old as the City
Cook's had only four owners in 98 years. The history Palo Alto Online laid out shows how the business stayed put that long:
- 1928: Bill Cook, a local policeman turned entrepreneur, founds the business in Menlo Park.
- 1940s: Cook sells to Robert Rahe, who owns the market until his death.
- 1963: Rahe's wife sells to Roy Crumrine, an employee since 1955.
- Most recently: Roy Crumrine Jr. runs it, adding a lobster roll and grilled fish tacos, as he told SFGate earlier this year.
Each owner came from inside the business or bought it from the person before. Crumrine started behind the counter and ended up owning it. That kind of handoff is how a place reaches 98 years.
The building at 751 El Camino Real worked as two businesses under one roof. On the market side, the San Francisco Chronicle described customers ordering sand dabs, salmon, Dungeness crab, oysters and calamari, then asking staff to clean the catch, crack the crab or pack the fish. On the restaurant side, diners at the old-fashioned counter picked how many pieces of fish to have with their chips. Palo Alto Online's menu list included petrale sole sandwiches, crab Louie salad, cioppino, and sand dabs with steak-cut fries.
The date of the closing stands out. Dowler told Palo Alto Online that summer is usually the slowest season for fish and that Cook's was about to enter its most profitable stretch. The sign in the window gave its own reason: "As you know, this year has been very difficult for restaurants." The Pleasanton location at 6654 Koll Center Parkway closed the same day. That location had opened only in May 2025, after an expansion first planned in 2017.
Menlo Park resident Linda Hubbard told Palo Alto Online that her "very frugal mother only bought seafood from Cook's," and that she had followed her lead.
Forty-Five Years on Alameda de las Pulgas
A month earlier, the same kind of story played out a couple of miles west. Lutticken's Deli at 3535 Alameda de las Pulgas in West Menlo Park set Sept. 30 as its final day after 45 years. Its evening program, After 5, served its last dinner on Aug. 29.
The Almanac's account shows that Lutticken's changed shape several times to keep going. Founder Bob Lutticken ran two grocery stores in South San Francisco in the 1970s. He then opened Lutticken's as a grocery in the building next to its current site, selling sandwiches called Poor Boys and Rich Boys for 79 cents, or 99 cents with cheese. After about a decade it moved next door and became a deli and catering business. In 2011 it added After 5, with dinner, a full bar and live music. By the end, it ran four locations: the flagship, two at Stanford Medical Center, and one in an office building on Sand Hill Road.
It was also a community hub. Lutticken's supported youth sports and causes for local veterans, and it was named Senate District 13's Small Business of the Year in 2024. Regular Mary Zarucchi, who played monthly at After 5 with her band The Salty Licks, told The Almanac, "It feels like our 'Cheers.'"
The family did not treat it as a final ending. "There will be something there," Bobby Lutticken, the founder's son, told The Almanac, "and so hopefully it'll make another big splash and can go another 45 years." After 5 manager Carlos Magana told the paper that he and an investor were ready to take over the business. That fits the Cook's pattern: the people best placed to carry a local business forward are often the ones already working there.
Same Address, New Kitchen on Santa Cruz Avenue
The third change downtown is a reinvention. Nothing left the address.
Sisters Almira and Kalbi Tursungjan opened Mrs Khan at 712 Santa Cruz Ave. in 2022. It was the only Uyghur restaurant on the Peninsula, known for laghman and polo. The Almanac reported that it closed quietly in September because Kalbi could not find a chef who could cook authentic Uyghur dishes. She kept the space and brought in chef-owner Minjun Li. The restaurant reopened on Oct. 14 as Dragon General.
Li has about 25 years of experience as a chef. He started in China at 16 and spent most of his career in Beijing, but he comes from Northeast China, and the menu leads with Dongbei dishes. According to The Almanac, he named the crispy sweet and sour pork and the Peking duck as the must-orders. The duck comes whole or half, for $48 to $88, with a choice of salt and pepper duck carcass or duck soup. The menu also covers housemade dim sum, Sichuan and Hunan dishes, and a Chinese American section with walnut shrimp and Kung Pao chicken.
One change shows the economics of a downtown restaurant. Dragon General serves beer and wine, which Mrs Khan did not, and Li said getting a beer and wine license was one reason for switching concepts. The purple exterior wall is now a natural wood color, and the flower wall at the front is gone. Li said he has had requests to bring back some Uyghur dishes and is open to it once he cuts the menu down. Until then, the closest Uyghur kitchen is Kusan Bazaar in Mountain View.
As of The Almanac's late-October report, Dragon General was open Wednesday through Monday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m., and was offering 12% off during its soft opening.
Why the Kickoff Says "Shop Local"
These three stories help explain why the city's centennial kickoff is a shopping event. In June, The Almanac reported that city officials and property owners had pointed for years to a downtown vacancy problem: large storefronts sitting empty and rents higher than many retailers can afford. In response, the council allowed salons, spas and similar services on Santa Cruz Avenue without a conditional-use permit. It also let gyms and arcades apply for permits, and it allowed banks to apply too, with a 30,000-square-foot total cap. In March, the City Council named downtown vibrancy one of its five priorities for fiscal year 2026–27.
The Dec. 4 event follows from that. The city's listing calls it a "winter wonderland" evening that rings in the holiday shopping season and starts the Centennial Celebration. It invites people to shop and dine at Menlo Park small businesses while they are downtown. This year the city will light the Menlo Park oak at Fremont Park "as we give our beloved pine tree a well deserved break."
December Downtown, Date by Date
From now through mid-December, these are the confirmed dates downtown, all within a few blocks of Fremont Park:
- Sundays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.: The year-round Menlo Park Farmers Market on Chestnut Street between Santa Cruz Avenue and Menlo Avenue, sponsored by the Menlo Park Live Oak Lions Club since 1992.
- Friday, Dec. 4, 5:30 to 7 p.m.: Shop local! Light Up the Season at Fremont Park, Santa Cruz Avenue at University Drive. Free, rain or shine, with youth performances, centennial photo spots and hot cocoa while it lasts.
- Saturday, Dec. 12, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: Photos with Santa at Arrillaga Family Recreation Center, 700 Alma St. It costs $5 per person, and reservations opened Nov. 2.
- Sunday, Dec. 13, 2 to 5 p.m.: Kepler's annual holiday party at 1010 El Camino Real.
The Fourth Fridays series, which we covered in its first season, held its last 2026 night on Oct. 23. Its organizers say dates for next season are still being set. That leaves the Dec. 4 tree lighting as the main downtown evening gathering until spring. It also falls one year before Menlo Park's 100th anniversary on Nov. 23, 2027.
Many longtime Menlo Park homeowners have their own memories of these counters, whether that's ordering at Cook's or spending a Friday night at After 5. When a home has been in a family that long, deciding what comes next for it deserves the same care. The Mary Murphy Team works with longtime owners across Menlo Park at whatever pace suits them. Request a complimentary home valuation & consultation when you are ready to talk.
