Springline Is Finally Full: Where to Eat and Drink at Menlo Park's El Camino Corner This Fall

On June 11, 2026, Burma Food Group opened Alisios Mexican Cocina at 550E Oak Grove Avenue. According to The Almanac, it was "the final addition to a now full list of restaurant tenants" at Springline. Springline's first restaurant opened in early 2023. This fall is the first time every food space on the block has been open at once. With the full lineup open, a single block between El Camino Real and the Caltrain tracks now covers the whole day. It starts with coffee at 7 a.m. and ends with a taproom that pours until 11 p.m. most nights of the week.

The last three spaces were also filled with specific gaps in mind. Each one went to an operator who added a kind of meal the block didn't yet serve.

Springline from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Springline's Retail Directory lists nine food-and-drink operators: Alisios Mexican Cocina, Andytown, Barebottle, Bubbelah, Burma Love, Causwells, Che Fico Parco Menlo, Proper Food and Robin. The directory publishes hours for some of them, and The Almanac printed Causwells' schedule when it opened. The list below sorts the confirmed hours by time of day. For places without published hours, check with the restaurant before you go.

Causwells' hours come from its April opening announcement. Before that, the block had coffee and grab-and-go food in the morning, from Andytown and Proper Food, and sit-down dinner at night. The newer arrivals filled in the hours between those two.

How the last three spaces were filled

Springline's first wave of food openings came in 2023. Canteen, a wine, cocktail and tapas bar at 558 Oak Grove Avenue, opened on Jan. 25. Burma Love followed on July 19 and Barebottle's taproom on July 20. Robin opened its omakase counter on Sept. 21, and Che Fico Parco Menlo opened on Nov. 8.

Three spaces then changed hands, and each new tenant shifted the lineup toward a different kind of meal.

1. Il Mercato di Che Fico became Bubbelah. The Che Fico team's Italian specialty market at 1300 El Camino Real, Suite A, opened March 21, 2024, as Palo Alto Online reported. It closed April 19, 2025, about a year later, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The same team turned the space into Bubbelah, a fast-casual restaurant centered on flavors of the Jewish diaspora, which opened in mid-May 2025, according to Palo Alto Online. The block gained a quick, casual meal option.
2. Canteen's space became Causwells. The Almanac reported that the owners of the San Francisco bistro had been looking to expand to the Peninsula when Springline's owner asked whether they would take the former Canteen space. Causwells opened April 2, 2026, with weekday lunch and weekend brunch.
3. The Mírame space became Alisios. Mírame had been announced for the last open restaurant space, but the deal was terminated. Burma Food Group founder Desmond Tan told The Almanac that about five months later, Presidio Bay Ventures, which owns Springline, asked his group whether it would open a Mexican restaurant there.

Two of these three tenants came by invitation, and each brought a cuisine or meal the block didn't have. Burma Food Group also bookended the whole build-out. "It's funny because we were the first one, and now we are the last one," Humberto Galeano, the group's bar director, told The Almanac.

Causwells covers lunch and brunch

The block's midday opening shows most clearly at Causwells. Chef-owner Adam Rosenblum described the goal to The Almanac in plain terms: "We've always wanted to just be a neighborhood restaurant. They can come in for a Wednesday lunch, or they can come in for a date night or graduation or whatever it is."

The room has 50 seats inside and a garage-style roll-up wall that opens onto 60 more outside. That outdoor seating makes it one of the larger rooms on the block. Rosenblum said about 75% of the menu is new compared with the San Francisco original. At opening, the menu included these:

• For a first visit: Rosenblum recommends the housemade ricotta with rosemary honey, olive oil and lavash for $15, and the American burger for $24, a dish that has been on the menu since day one.
• Weekend brunch: breakfast jambalaya, boudin sausage Benedict and brioche French toast bites, priced from $11 to $19.
• The bar: co-owner Elmer Mejicanos runs a martini cart with three options. The bar also distills its own nonalcoholic spirits for alcohol-free cocktails.

Before April, a late-morning weekend meal on the block meant grab-and-go food or a wait for dinner service. Causwells opens at 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, so the block now serves a sit-down weekend brunch.

Alisios brings Mexican food, next to Barebottle

Alisios sits beside Barebottle Brewing, and the two now anchor the Oak Grove side of the block. Executive chef Carlos Villegas grew up in Tijuana. He and sous chef Renee Gomez built a menu that draws on Oaxaca and Baja, with many recipes from Villegas' family. The Almanac reported that the birria is his grandmother's recipe.

Dishes from the opening menu, as listed in The Almanac:

• Smoked oysters on an edible squid-ink shell, three for $19.75
• Duck breast with black mole and corn ash, $41.75
• Dry-aged prime flap steak with roasted cactus salsa, $41.75
• Sweet corn cake from Villegas' wife Andrea's recipe, $14.75

The drinks list makes Alisios work for more than dinner. Galeano's pineapple margarita costs $16, or $12 without alcohol. The bar also serves Mexican beer on tap and wines from Valle de Guadalupe and Parras Valley. Nonalcoholic options include horchata, jamaica and café de olla. Villegas' favorite cocktail is the elote old fashioned, made with grilled corn-infused bourbon, for $18.

The plaza calendar

With every space open, the plaza is busier on event dates. On Sept. 18 and 19, Springline Plaza held a ticketed Oktoberfest from 5 to 9 p.m. Admission was $30, or $40 with a one-liter stein and a drink ticket. Earlier this year, the free Hop into Spring event on March 29 brought food from Barebottle, Bubbelah, Causwells, Che Fico Gelato, Burma Love and Little Sky Bakery, which appears at Springline as an event vendor rather than a tenant.

The next public event on the Springline calendar is the annual Barks & Boos on Friday, Oct. 23. It runs from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at The Glade Dog Park, with a live DJ, local pet vendors and a costume contest. After that comes the 5th Annual Holiday Celebration on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2026.

For parking, the public garage entrance is on El Camino Real, just past Burma Love.

Meanwhile on Santa Cruz Avenue

Most new dining news this year has come from the Caltrain side of El Camino, and downtown changed over the same months. Left Bank Brasserie served its last dinner in June after 28 years at 635 Santa Cruz Avenue, as Palo Alto Online reported. As of this writing, no successor for that space has been announced. On June 23, the City Council approved zoning amendments that allow ground-floor personal-service businesses on Santa Cruz Avenue. That change gives future tenants on the street more room to vary.

Downtown's next big public day is coming up. The city's Halloween Hoopla runs Saturday, Oct. 24, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. A parade goes down Santa Cruz Avenue to a free carnival at Fremont Park, and participating downtown stores offer trick-or-treating. From the parade route, Springline is a short walk across El Camino.

Some people choose a home by asking where they would get coffee at 7 a.m. and dinner at 9 p.m. If you are weighing that kind of walkable routine in Menlo Park or elsewhere on the Peninsula, Under the Lemon Tree Group can map it out with you, street by street. Work With Us.