What's New Around Downtown Sunnyvale This Fall? A Year of Handoffs on Murphy Avenue

When the Mercury News looked at downtown Sunnyvale in June, it framed the story as a construction story. A shopping mall was torn down in 2007, the site sat stalled for almost ten years, and CityLine took it over in 2016 and filled it with apartments, offices, a Whole Foods and an AMC. That account holds up. Still, look at where downtown's newest food has opened this year. Most of it moved into rooms other restaurants had already built out, with menus brought in by new owners.

Over roughly four months, three addresses on South Murphy Avenue got new tenants or new names, and a fourth handoff happened a short drive west on Mary Avenue. Only one of this summer's high-profile openings went into a brand-new building.

The handoffs, address by address

Home Eat at 101 S. Murphy is the quietest of these changes. According to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, the Sunnyvale location was the last one still using the Fashion Wok name. If the sign on the corner looks different than it did last spring, the space didn't go dark. It got a new name.

The other three handoffs each brought something downtown didn't have before. Khaar is the one to try first.

Khaar, at the top of the 100 block

Khaar serves food from the Seven Sisters, a nickname for seven neighboring states in northeast India. Palo Alto Online describes it as the Bay Area's first Northeast Indian restaurant. Owner Nandana Hazarika told the paper that the cooking draws on Nepal, Myanmar and China and uses black sesame, fermented mustard, mustard oil and fermented bamboo shoot. She describes the flavors as soothing, built on ingredients more than on heavy spice, cream or dairy.

Hazarika's own path fits the neighborhood. She was born in Assam, has lived in the Bay Area for almost 18 years and spent most of her career as a software engineer and data analyst. She later auditioned for "MasterChef India," went to culinary school and interned at The Oxford Kitchen & Gastropub in Lodi. When that restaurant's owner decided to sell his Sunnyvale location, she took over the space.

Here is what Hazarika and the menu point to:

• Khaar croquette, $18. Made with Assamese alkaline rice and filled with flaky fish and fermented mushroom. She compares it to arancini.
• Black Sesame Heritage, $29. Slow-cooked chicken or pork in roasted black sesame curry, served with sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf.
• Chef's Special Golden Blossom, $32. Fried, stuffed squash blossoms with smoked bell pepper tomato sauce and cracked wheat pulao.
• Bamboo Blaze. Chicken wings, lotus stems, tofu or paneer tossed in fermented bamboo shoot seasoning with honey chili sauce.
• To finish. Assam tea crème brûlée or black sesame cheesecake, with desserts priced from $7.49 to $13.

The bar serves a smoked Assam old fashioned and a chai martini at $15. For non-drinkers, there's an Assam tea spritzer or a bamboo and basil soda at $11. Much of the cooking is naturally gluten-free and dairy-free, and the menu includes vegetarian and vegan options. The dining room seats 135 inside, with more seating outdoors, and the walls carry photos of Assam tea farms.

Khaar serves lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner starting at 5 p.m. It closes at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday and at 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The listed hours leave out Monday.

Zareen's came down the Peninsula, one city at a time

Zareen's took a different route to 135 S. Murphy. Chef Zareen Khan started in a small Mountain View storefront in 2014, opened on Palo Alto's California Avenue in 2016 and expanded to Redwood City's Broadway in 2020. Sunnyvale is now the chain's southernmost location. It was originally expected to open in March and was open by the time the Press Democrat reported on it June 1. Earlier this year Khan was named a 2026 James Beard semifinalist for best chef in California.

Regulars from the Mountain View and Palo Alto locations will know the orders already. The 2020 Michelin Guide called the chicken Memoni samosas a "must-order" and also recommended the chicken shami kebabs. The Sunnyvale location is open daily from 5 to 9 p.m. That makes it a dinner stop only, unlike Khaar two doors of addresses up the block, which also serves lunch.

A bakery handoff on Mary Avenue

The fourth handoff is outside downtown but within easy reach of it. Jade Wang ran Tiny Croissanterie as a San Francisco pop-up starting in 2024, operating out of cafes like Paper Son Coffee and Shoji. In August, Palo Alto Online reported that her first permanent bakery would open "later this month" in the former Hanabusa Cafe space at 201 S. Mary Ave. #1. We haven't found coverage confirming the opening, so check @tinycroissanterie on Instagram before you go.

Like Hazarika, Wang changed careers. She spent five years in finance before training in viennoiserie and bread at the San Francisco Baking Institute. She leans savory. Her chicken floss and seaweed croissant is inspired by Taiwanese pork floss buns, and her scallion cronigiri reworks a Chinese scallion pancake as a croissant crossed with an onigiri. Coffee uses Moonwake Coffee Roasters beans, in a program designed by Jose Garcia, Shoji's coffee program director. The room seats about 42, and a lunch menu of focaccia sandwiches, onion soup and salads is planned for two or three months after opening. The posted hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

What CityLine adds: foot traffic and a weekend calendar

The one big summer opening that came with new construction was Shake Shack. It opened in June beneath the Martin, CityLine's apartment building of nearly 500 units, which opened in 2024. Josh Rupert of Hunter Properties told the Mercury News the opening drew lines down the street. Rupert said the goal was offices supporting retail and retail supporting housing. Databricks is expected to move into downtown offices in late 2026, joining CrowdStrike and Nokia.

That density is what makes the handoffs work. A new owner taking over a room on Murphy Avenue is betting on the people who already walk past it, and CityLine keeps finding reasons to bring them out. Heather Gerlach, who handles CityLine's marketing, said the development hosted 41 events in 2025, 13 of them festivals, with more than 150,000 attendees in total. Here's this fall's lineup:

1. Thursday, Oct. 15, 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The free 2026 Sunnyvale Tech Expo fills the 100 block of South Murphy Avenue. It's sponsored by the City, the Sunnyvale Downtown Association, the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce and DoorDash.
2. Saturday, Oct. 24. CityLine's Harvest Festival takes over Redwood Square with a pumpkin patch and carving stations, live music from the teen band Osada3, a Monster Mash dance lesson led by Alyssa from On One Studios, a Día de los Muertos performance and trick-or-treating.
3. Saturday, Oct. 31, and Sunday, Nov. 1, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Sunnyvale Autumn Food Festival brings food and craft vendors, live performances and a pet costume contest, with free parking in the CityLine garages.
4. Every Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The farmers' market at Murphy Avenue and Washington runs year-round, rain or shine. The operator's calendar shows no Sunnyvale closures this quarter and says its markets stay open on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year weekends.

CityLine's listings don't give a year. They were the posted upcoming events as of early October, and Oct. 24 and Oct. 31 fall on Saturdays this year, but check CityLine's events page before you head out.

The long-running places in between

The handoffs stand out more against the places that haven't changed. Fibbar MaGees has poured pints on Murphy Avenue since 1994, and Paul & Harvey next door has been a bar there since 1937. Gumba's, Lucky Shot Billiards and Keke's Breakfast Cafe fill out the stretch, and since February 2023 the avenue has been closed to cars, which makes it easy to walk between them. Heather Howard, who has worked for Fibbar MaGees since it opened, told the Mercury News she expects more turnover downtown. This year's turnover brought an Assamese dining room, a James Beard semifinalist's fourth location and, if the August plans held, a croissant bakery from a former finance worker.

At Under the Lemon Tree Group, we keep track of which rooms change hands on Murphy Avenue and what the new tenants bring. If you're weighing how a block like this fits the way you live, we're glad to talk it through. Work With Us.