Come See What All The Excitement’s About
Filed under Blog · Tagged: 560 Los Altos Ave, Housing Choices, Inventory, Open House, Quality of Life
This Saturday & Sunday, we are holding an Open House for 560 Los Altos Avenue. We would love to see you swing for a visit to see all that this home has to offer. It is both traditional and beautifully updated. Light, bright, and ready to move in.
More important, this home is easily within walking distance to schools and downtown Los Altos. We will be open this Saturday, May 7th from 1:30-4:30. We look forward to seeing you.
If you would like a private showing of this great North Los Altos home, please contact us at 650-823-1434. And, if you would like preview this home before this weekend, feel free to go to www.560LosAltos.com.
A New Place to Eat
Filed under Blog · Tagged: Downtown, Family Fun, Los Altos Town Cirer, Quality of Life
A few years ago, I was traveling through Florida and asked the hotel concierge for a fun restaurant at which to eat. He didn’t hesitate with his recommendation: ”Taverna Opa” he stated with such enthusiasm I knew I had to give it a try. The fun component lived up to expectations. The food was good, and the atmosphere was lively.
Coming soon to downtown Los Altos, Opa! (Authentic Greek Cuisine) looks to bring our community some distinctive flavor from the Mediterranean. While these two restaurant share a part of their name, they are not related businesses. However, the enthusiasm surrounding this restaurant is the same. Recently, the Town Crier wrote a article about Opa! Enjoy …
Just as the rains subside and leave local residents to dry out after a thorough drenching comes the mouth-watering news that Opa! Authentic Greek Cuisine is tentatively scheduled to open by May 15 at 325 Main St., replacing now-closed Zitune’s Moroccan fare.
With two other locations – San Jose’s Willow Glen district and downtown Los Gatos – Opa!’s Web site gives potential diners a tantalizing preview of what’s on the menu. And if reviews at Yelp.com and restaurant critics are to be believed, prepare to enjoy.
Since the April 2008 debut of its first location in San Jose, 463 reviews at Yelp overall award the restaurant four stars of five.
Most Yelpers seem to agree that Opa!’s fries are top notch, flavored with Greek spices and topped with feta cheese and herbs and well worth the $4.99 price. For $2 more, diners can have the deluxe version, served with tzatziki, yogurt flavored with cucumber, garlic and other spices, and gyro (yee-roh), skewered meat.
So maybe the wait will be worth it, too, because if diners like what they eat at the Los Gatos and San Jose Opa!s, they’ll like the dining in Los Altos.
“For the most part, our menus and specials are all consistent, and that’s what customers can expect,” said Opa! co-owner Molly Adams, who recently joined restaurant co-founders Spiro Tsaboukos and Angelo Heropoulos.
Adams said Heropoulos created the Opa! concept and executive chef Tsaboukos developed the menu.
“Spiro was raised in the restaurant business and spent time in Greece as a child,” she said. “His parents own Lou’s Diner in Los Gatos – and that’s been there a long time.”
Adams said Tsaboukos has produced an Opa! recipe book for the Greek-with-Mediterranean-flair recipes so that chefs don’t deviate from the ingredients, ensuring consistency.
Open daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Opa! offers lunch and dinner: from appetizers priced from $4.99 to $11.99, assorted dips and spreads served with warm pita bread, entrees ranging from $15.99 to $22.99, daily specials and desserts – and, of course, the famous fries sprinkled with special spices and feta cheese. There is also a weekend-brunch menu.
Adams said the Main Street location is ideal for Opa!’s philosophy to serve a fresh, high-quality and authentic Greek cuisine in small, family-oriented communities.
“We love the space – it’s a gorgeous, gorgeous space,” Adams said. “It really fits in with what we’re trying to do.”
Adams said Opa!’s seating will be similar to Zitune’s – including outdoor dining – but colors and other aesthetic changes are under way inside.
“We just give it the Opa! feeling,” she said.
With more than 3,000 square feet and a seating capacity of 90, the larger Los Altos space should be good news for diners who have endured long lines at other Opa! restaurants for a bite to eat.
“Our other locations are smaller,” Adams said.
Diners get stuffed on the food just reading the menu. Like the Greek Cheesesteak Sandwich, a blend of gyro meat, sautéed onions and bell peppers blended with mozzarella cheese, served in a warm pita and topped with a spicy aioli. Or the Bifteki, a Greek burger with spiced ground beef and lamb served on a toasted bun, topped with tzatziki, ripe tomatoes, red onions and chopped mint, accompanied by a choice of sides for both – those famous fries or rice pilaf.
Despite its relatively small size, Opa! is growing in a big way, with another restaurant scheduled to open soon in Walnut Creek and other possibilities for expansion, including branching into a franchise.
“It’s definitely something we’ve talked about,” Adams said. For more information, visit their Willow Glen web site.
Centrally Located Los Altos Gem
Filed under Sold Properties · Tagged: Employee Relocation, Housing Choices, Inventory, Los Altos, Quality of Life
For the past 13 years, 476 Benvenue has been home to a wonderful family that fully enjoys living in Los Altos. Being centrally located has allowed them the ability to stroll to Downtown, or to Rancho, to enjoy many of the shops and restaurants. All of these community amenities are just minutes away.
If entertaining at home is what you enjoy, the open floor plan and newly landscaped garden will provide a wonderful experience for your guests. If staying in is more your style, the large great room and both formal and informal dining allows for relaxing with friends or family.
For those of you unfamiliar with central Los Altos, it allows for easy access to everything the city has to offer. If entertaining at home is what you enjoy, this home offers both formal and informal dining and a beautiful living room with fireplace. This is a very nice 3 Bedroom, 2 bath home with the added bonus of a fantastic detached cottage with kitchenette, living room, office, and full bath.
Don’t miss this wonderful home, in a truly great neighborhood. Contact us today for a private tour (650-823-1434).
The Living Classroom Program
Filed under Blog · Tagged: Education, Los Altos, Los Altos Town Cirer, Quality of Life
The school districts in Los Altos have always been open to piloting new and innovative ways to teach their students. Essentially, the districts have established a multi-directional education experience for the students, their parents, and the broader community. As we’ve mentioned previously, the local schools are consistently mentioned as one of the primary reasons families want to live in Los Altos.
Recently, the Town Crier wrote about this program. Below you will find an edited version of the Crier’s story. Enjoy …
The Living Classroom Program, which provides garden-based science lessons in the Los Altos School District, is thriving.
The program has sustained growth rates of 50 percent per year over the past two years, providing more than 400 lessons to students in grades K-7 this school year alone.
“The teacher and student feedback from the lessons have been extremely positive, and we are thrilled that more and more students are getting this important exposure to the natural world,” said Nadia Jankovic, Living Classroom docent. “The lessons are science based and tie very well to the children’s school curriculum, helping reinforce what is being taught in the classroom with a hands-on, nature-based focus that the kids really enjoy.”
Founded in 2008, the Living Classroom operates in all seven district elementary schools and is piloting seventh-grade science lessons at Blach Junior High School this spring.
Mike Sanderson, program director, said “one of the most satisfying experiences you can have as a volunteer docent is to see the genuine excitement on children’s faces when they are really engaged, with all their senses, in learning. Seeing that sense of wonder and connection that children make, sometimes for the first time, with something living in the garden, is truly magical.”
Since its inception, private donations have funded the Living Classroom. Local foundations such as the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Los Altos Educational Foundation, the Morgan Family Foundation and the Los Altos Community Foundation Youth Philanthropy Program and other businesses and individuals have kept the program afloat for the past three years.
For more information, e-mail Mike Sanderson at msanderson@lasdschools.org, call 947-1103 or simply click here.
A Boutique Home In Los Gatos
Filed under Sold Properties · Tagged: Employee Relocation, Housing Choices, Inventory, New Construction, Quality of Life
27 CROSS WAY, Los Gatos, CA 95014
Sold at $899,000
2 Beds / 2 Baths / 900 sqft
Townhouse
Represented: Buyer
A Townhouse Gem in Cupertino
Filed under Sold Properties · Tagged: Employee Relocation, Housing Choices, Inventory, New Construction, Quality of Life
20580 SHADY OAK LANE, Cupertino, CA 95014
Sold at $590,000
2 Beds / 2.5 Baths / 1,385 sqft
Townhouse
Represented: Seller
Los Altan of the Year
Filed under Blog · Tagged: Los Altos Town Cirer, Quality of Life, Recognition, Volunteering
Every year our local paper, the Town Crier, selects an individual as Los Altan of the Year. This honor has been bestowed to a number of individuals that I have always held in high regard. They are selflessly committed to our community. They create bonds that make Los Altos what it is today.
This year, Don McDonald was selected. He is widely respected, thoroughly humble, and a consummate gentleman. Below you will find an edited version of the Crier’s story. Enjoy …
Donald C. McDonald’s eyes light up as he talks enthusiastically about the characters and events that framed early Los Altos history. The names Paul Shoup and George Ramsey may not mean much to today’s Los Altos residents, but these early settlers fascinate the man whose love of history is always very much part of his present.
That love has spurred longtime, ongoing volunteer work at the Los Altos History Museum. But Don’s cultured side – he loves travel, fine art and opera – also played a role in his helping to found Los Altos Sister Cities Inc., an ambassadorial organization that has spread the good will of this community to countries around the world.
Don, 92, has sparked interest in the stories of others among countless Los Altos residents. He has played a major role in the community’s commitment to respecting its history.
Because of his 40 years of volunteer work enlightening the Los Altos community, the Town Crier has named Don its 2010 Los Altan of the Year. The paper presents its annual honor to residents whose contributions create good will and make Los Altos a desirable community in which to live.
Don, known by many as the town historian, said he was “deeply honored and humbled.”
“This is right up there with a major award stipend I got from NSA (National Security Agency),” Don winked, “but that one paid better because a lifetime stipend went along with it.”
Don began volunteering not long after he arrived in Los Altos in 1970. With the Los Altos History House Association, he worked as a docent, conducted approximately 100 interviews for the museum’s Oral History Program and wrote many historical items for the museum’s newsletter and the Town Crier.
He was guest curator for the 2000 exhibition “Los Altos as a Homefront in World War II,” and used that information as part of a new book published this year for which he wrote captions. “Images of America: Early Los Altos and Los Altos Hills” (Arcadia Publishing, 2010) is credited to Don McDonald and the Los Altos History Museum. He attended special events and book signings in support of the book, which covers the history of the region from 1850 to 1950.
In 1990-1991, Don served as Los Altos Sister Cities vice president for Bendigo, Australia. The Los Altos Historical Commission appointed him a member in 1999.
From 1980 until last year, he volunteered at the Bechtel International Center at Stanford University, both as a teacher and a conversational partner for foreign scholars and their spouses. From 1974 until 1995, he periodically taught poetry classes for the Palo Alto Adult School.
His interest in history led him to join such local organizations as the Peninsula Civil War Round Table (where he served as president in 1991), the South Bay Civil War Round Table, the Palo Alto Historical Association, the Mountain View Historical Society, the Moffett Field Historical Society and the Society for Aviation History. He has also written for the Glendale Historical Society.
For his volunteer work, Don received the Los Altos-Los Altos Hills Joint Community Volunteer Service Award in 2000. And in 2008, the Los Altos City Council honored him by proclaiming his 90th birthday, July 25, “Don McDonald Day.”
Pursuing a special interest in early music, Don founded the Washington Recorder Society in 1957. He organized and led the Silver Spring Consort, which sponsored a number of early music programs in the Silver Spring Library in Maryland. In addition to being an excellent recorder player, Don is a published poet.
He is an avid amateur photographer. Don enjoys theater and performed in a number of community theater productions, as well as at Camp Zama, Japan.
For nearly 30 years, Don and his wife, Audrey, traveled worldwide. They took many trips to Europe and Australia; polar voyages from Greenland to the Canadian Arctic, and to Antarctica; three extensive freighter trips – around South America, from and to San Francisco (1976); around the world, from Antwerp westward to Rotterdam (1991); and from New Orleans to Algeria and Egypt, returning through the St. Lawrence Seaway to Cleveland (1978). They also participated in 10 Elderhostel programs in the United States and one in France.
Their north Los Altos home is filled with items collected on their travels, such as boomerangs from Australia and woodblocks from Japan. But Don’s biggest and most important collections are friends.
With typical humility, Don downplays his achievements and attributes his life’s successes to good fortune.
“I think 10 percent is genealogy, 5 percent is not doing the wrong things and 85 percent is pure luck,” Don said in explaining his success – and longevity.
What Defines Village Character?
Filed under Featured Story · Tagged: Downtown, Los Altos, Los Altos Town Cirer, Quality of Life
There are as many descriptions of Los Altos, as there are resident. Carol & I enjoy hearing about the characteristics residents use to define this community they love so much. The most common title used is that Los Altos is a Village.
There are a number of projects underway around the community. During each planning phase, the community has had the opportunity to participate in framing what they would like to see improved, and/or retain.
So, what exactly defines Village character? Well, the Town Crier recently dove into this subject. Below, is an slightly edited version of their article. Enjoy …
As construction moves toward completion on streetscape improvements in downtown Los Altos, the disruption to traffic – autos and otherwise – will become a distant memory when newly planted flowers are blooming and pedestrians replace detour placards.
After all, the impetus for infrastructure improvements was to boost business, draw developers and create a lively and vibrant village for visitors. But before the streetscape construction began, city officials adopted Downtown Design Guidelines in December 2009, outlining architectural and design elements for the residential and commercial areas within the triangle bordered by Foothill Expressway, San Antonio Road and West Edith Avenue. Read more
6 Bedrooms & Large Lot
Filed under Sold Properties · Tagged: Employee Relocation, Housing Choices, Inventory, Los Altos, Quality of Life
600 Guadalupe Drive has been home to a wonderful family that fully enjoyed living in Los Altos. Being located in North Los Altos allowed them the ability to stroll to Town, enjoy the Hetch-Hetchy pathway, and dine at many of the nearby restaurants. All of these community amenities are just minutes away.
For those of you unfamiliar with North Los Altos, it has always been a highly desirable place to live. If entertaining at home is what you enjoy, this home offers both formal and informal dining and a beautiful living room with fireplace and wood wainscoting detail. The large eat in kitchen and oversized family room leading to the back patio are perfect for informal living for friends or family.
This 6 bedroom 3 full bath home has been updated and is move in ready. The added benefit of a back yard fireplace and patio makes this home perfect for entertaining.
600 Guadalupe Drive is within the Santa Rita Elementary School boundary, which teaches children from Kindergarten through 6th grade. Santa Rita is one of the two schools, mentioned above, that had been selected as national Blue Ribbon school.
Contact us today for a private tour (650-823-1434).
Community Volunteer Opportunities
Filed under Blog · Tagged: Education, Employee Relocation, Family Fun, Los Altos, Quality of Life, Volunteering
Every year, around this time, Carol & I are asked about available volunteer activities around town. As far back as we can remember, we’ve always been a part of one coordinated effort or another. Annually, we donate an average of 600 hours of volunteer time towards building a stronger community.
Not surprisingly, most residents in Los Altos volunteer. Whether it be in their children’s school, at their place of worship, or even with one of the local service clubs. There is something for everyone.
For those looking for a new volunteer opportunity, there are many organizations who would love to speak with you. Below, you will find a few of these organizations …
Los Altos History Museum: Learn about the history of the Los Altos area and help others enjoy the museum. Training provided. Flexible hours or a regularly scheduled shift. 948-9427, ext. 91; volunteer@losaltoshistory.org.
English-in-Action: Seeks people to converse in English one hour a week with Stanford’s international students, scholars or spouses. 327-7412; 498-5252; eia@ccisstanfordu.org.
American Cancer Society Discovery Shop: Downtown Los Altos. Proceeds go to cancer awareness, education and improving the comfort of cancer patients. 949-0505.
Assistance League Costume Bank: New volunteers sought for Los Altos shop. 941-2610.
Community Services Agency: Help a few hours a week to drive frail seniors to medical appointments or take home-bound seniors grocery shopping. 964-4630.
Deer Hollow Farm: Lead small groups of elementary school children as they visit farm animals, explore the wilderness preserve or discover local history and culture in a replica Ohlone village at Rancho San Antonio County Park. 903-6430; dhfarms@mountainview.gov.
Pathways Hospice: Seeks caring volunteers to help patients and their caregivers manage care at home. Volunteers provide companionship, practical help and emotional support at a crucial time. Training schedule: (408) 773-4219.
City of Los Altos: Needs handy people to work in the Senior In-Home Repair Program performing minor home repairs. Telephone greeters at City Hall are also needed. Flexible hours and basic training provided. 948-1491, ext. 229.
Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District: Outdoor educational leaders needed during the week to share nature with children at Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve. 691-1200.
Visit elderly Los Altos residents: People needed for weekly one-hour visits with local seniors. 329-0888.
About Us
Moving into Los Altos? We can help! We have lived in Los Altos for the past 35 years and love helping people buy and sell homes in this great city! We bring experience, knowledge, skills and professionalism to each of our client relationships. Our clients will agree they would not have had the same positive experience, at each step of the way, if they had not had us represent them.
David Casas Cell: 650-823-8920 or Email
(DRE#01116954)
Carol Casas Cell: 650-823-1434 or Email
(DRE#01123855)
