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Published on 01/26/1998 All articles from this issue

Council OKs - but scales back - Indian restaurant for State Street

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

The Los Altos City Council gave the nod to an Indian restaurant, but, responding to citizen concerns about parking, scaled back the requested 70 seats to 50.

Satkar Indian Restaurant will be going in at 233-235 State Street in downtown Los Altos, in the spaces formerly occupied by The Daily Grind and Tri-City Lock.

At its Jan. 27 meeting, the council approved seating for 50 for two and a half years and then the seating could go up to 70, said Larry Tong, Los Altos planning director.

The chance for the seating to increase, Tong said, is "in anticipation that downtown parking will be addressed. Council expressed concern about new restaurants coming downtown and the need for parking mitigation."

Members of the Los Altos Village Association raised the parking issue with the council.

Conrad Heintzelman, president of the association, said in a letter to the council that downtown already has "overburdened parking.

"Downtown visitors may be frustrated by parking morass, thereby decreasing downtown's overall attractiveness and driving future patrons away."

The coming restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner, from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days per week, according to the staff report by contract planner Bob Schubert.

Seating will be both indoors and outside in the patio on the parking plaza.

The restaurant may open as early as April, said Joe Ruk, an architect with East Bay Restaurant Supply that is doing the design and remodel of the restaurant.

There will be a full sit-down lunch and dinner menu plus catering.

The restaurant will have a Tandori oven, "like a clay pot with a fire inside," Ruk said, for the Indian breads.

This will be the second restaurant for owners M. Singh and H. Chen, Ruk said.