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To-go is the only option at Palo Alto’s newest eatery, Proper Food. The grab-and-go concept is not serving your typical lunch box options – find salads with seared ahi tuna, wraps with buffalo cauliflower and hot plates with chimichurri hanger steak.
With a menu designed by Juan Muñoz, who previously worked at two Michelin-starred restaurants in San Francisco, Proper Food carries a selection of seasonal ready-made meals made from sustainably sourced and all-natural ingredients. Established in 2014 in San Francisco, Proper Food has 14 locations in the Bay Area and four locations in New York City. The grand opening of its new Palo Alto eatery will be Tuesday, Oct. 29.
“We call it Proper Food because our food in our concept is proper in every way,” said Dana Bloom, co-CEO and co-founder of Proper Food. “Everything is made from scratch, fresh each day … and then we also are really thoughtful about food rescue. So whatever we don’t sell by the end of the day, we donate to charity.”
Dana Bloom and her husband, Howard Bloom, came up with the concept of Proper Food while both working corporate jobs and raising children.
“I just felt like we were always having to make a trade off – either getting food that was super fast or getting food that was high quality – but we couldn’t find anything that was both of those things, and we hated having to make that trade off,” Dana Bloom said.
So they hired Muñoz as founding chef and head of operations.
“He had come from working in Michelin-starred kitchens but had gotten disenchanted with that whole world and really wanted to be able to make high quality food much more accessible as well and to serve a broader audience,” Dana Bloom said.
Proper Food Palo Alto is the company’s second Peninsula outpost, with the first opening in Menlo Park in April 2023. Opening a Palo Alto outpost is somewhat of a homecoming for Dana and Howard Bloom, who met in their freshman dorm at Stanford University. While neither studied food or business – Dana Bloom studied economics, psychology and sociology, and Howard Bloom studied human biology with a focus in public policy – both had “always dreamed of doing something entrepreneurial” and were “super passionate about food,” Dana Bloom said.
Proper Food Palo Alto is located within a newly renovated office building’s lobby and is open to the general public. At the back of the building is a plaza with tables and chairs, available for Proper Food customers.
Breakfast items range from $4.65-$11.95 and lunch items range from $8.95-$17.95. Dana Bloom’s current favorite lunch items at Proper Food include the sweet potato enchiladas with guajillo salsa, roasted poblano peppers, Oaxaca and Manchego cheese, onions, cilantro and creme fraiche ($13.95) and the fall salad with roasted apples, honey and vanilla pickled pears, red cabbage, dried cranberries, caramelized pecans, baby arugula and spinach mix and lemon coriander dressing ($14.50). For a snack, she recommends the Proper energy bar with goji berries, rolled oats, flax seeds, coconut peanut butter, dark chocolate, dried cherries and sea salt ($4.95); for breakfast, the overnight oats with almond milk, almonds, raisins and cinnamon ($4.95); and for dessert, the chocolate chip cookie ($3.50).
Proper Food creates its own cold pressed juice blends, and the Palo Alto location includes a full coffee and espresso bar featuring a custom blend created in collaboration with Andytown Coffee Roasters called The Proper Roast.
“Andytown is also a husband and wife team from San Francisco, so we have a lot in common with them,” Dana Bloom said.
In addition to sourcing coffee beans from Andytown Coffee, Proper Food receives its produce from Greenleaf, meat from Golden Gate Meat Company, bread from South San Francisco’s Wedemeyer Bakery and pastries from Sunday Bakeshop.
Proper Food is passionate about reducing food waste. In the kitchen, Proper Food aims to use every part of its ingredients. For example, rice is boiled in house-made vegetable broth made from vegetable remnants. Unsold food at the end of the day is donated, with Proper Food having donated over half a million meals to those in need.
“When people in need get our food, it comes in a really dignified way,” Dana Bloom said. “It’s in a beautiful packaging, and they’re getting the same meal exactly the way our customers are eating it. And so we get a lot of thank you notes from people who have gotten that food, and it was something that really brightened their day in a time where they’re struggling a bit. And so that’s been really rewarding.”
Proper Food, 525 University Ave., Palo Alto; 650-924-9868, Instagram: @eatproper. Open Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
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