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By Elena Kadvany
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I am a perpetually hungry twenty-something journalist, born and raised in Menlo Park and currently working at the Palo Alto Weekly as education and youth staff writer. I graduated from USC with a major in Spanish and a minor in journalism. Though my first love is journalism, food is a close second. I am constantly on the lookout for new restaurants to try, building an ever-expanding "to eat" list. As a journalist, I'm always trolling news sources and social media websites with an eye for local food news, from restaurant openings and closings to emerging food trends. When I was a teenager growing up in Menlo Park, I always drove up to the city on weekends with the singular purpose of finding a better meal than I could at home. But in the past year or so, the Peninsula's food culture has been totally transformed, with many new restaurants opening and a continuous stream of San Francisco restaurants coming south to open Peninsula outposts. Don't navigate this food boom hungry and alone! Feed me your tips on new chefs and eats and together we'll share them with the broader community.
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Umami Burger calls it quits in downtown Palo Alto
Uploaded: Feb 13, 2020
Umami Burger has closed after nearly seven years on University Avenue in Palo Alto.
The 452 University Ave. burger eatery "closed due lease expiration," a PR representative said. A sign in the window said the closure was effective Feb. 7.
The now-closed Umami Burger in Palo Alto. Photo by Michelle Le.
The Los Angeles-born burger chain expanded to Palo Alto in March 2013. Just five weeks after opening, Palo Alto came in as the third-highest-grossing Umami Burger location out of 14 other restaurants.
The burger competition has heated up in Palo Alto since then, with the opening of Gott's Roadside at Town & Country in 2013,
Wahlburger's down the street in 2017 and
Shake Shack at Stanford Shopping Center last year — not to mention the meteoric rise of the plant-based Impossible burger from Impossible Meats in Redwood City, which Umami served.
Two Umami Burgers remain in the Bay Area, in San Francisco and Oakland. A second San Francisco location closed last year. All but one New York City location also closed last year.
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