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Stanford Shopping Center is getting a swanky debut concept created by the team behind The Winery Restaurant & Wine Bar, an upscale fine dining restaurant that has been in Orange County since 2007.
Expected to open in early November, Cedar & Sage Bistro & Lounge will offer late-night dining, “cutting edge” cocktails, live music four to five nights a week, tapas-style dishes and a thoughtfully curated 250-selection wine program featuring bottles from every major wine-producing area on the West Coast, according to owner JC Clow.
“We want to throw the best damn party in Palo Alto every single day,” Clow said.
Like The Winery, Cedar & Sage will be a chef-driven, wine-focused restaurant helmed by chef Yvon Goetz. Goetz grew up in France cooking fresh ingredients from his grandfather’s garden with his grandmother. He’s worked at a slew of Michelin-starred kitchens in England, including Relais & Chateaux Chewton Glen Hotel, Hambleton Hall and London’s Dorchester Hotel, as well as Michelin three-starred restaurant Le Crocodile in France. While the menu is still being developed, expect California Wine Country fare with influences from Hawaii.
The focal point of Cedar & Sage will be its wine bar and wine cellar, Clow said. Clow has extensive experience in the wine industry, working as one of two wine buyers for Morton’s Restaurant Group for 12 years before founding The Winery with William Lewis and Goetz. Clow met Lewis in 1995 when Clow hired him to be a server at Morton’s. Lewis’ son, Royce, plays for the Minnesota Twins, and several professional baseball players are silent partners, Clow said.
The wine program at Cedar & Sage is more condensed than at The Winery, featuring around 250 selections, versus 750. Wine selection will heavily lean toward West Coast wines, but there will also be Bordeaux and Burgundy, as well as Italian, Argentinian and Spanish wines. Around eight to 10 wines will be available on tap, including one or two Clow produced out of Paso Robles.
While Cedar & Sage is a wine-focused restaurant, it will also offer “the most popular vodkas, scotches, single-malt scotches, small-batch bourbons, ports, cognacs,” Clow said. The cocktail program has been in development for months, and while Clow divulged no specifics, he said it will be “new age” and “unique.”
The ambiance at Cedar & Sage will also be a departure from The Winery, which sports crisp white tablecloths, real china and real crystal stemware.
“(Cedar & Sage) is still bringing fine dining as far as the menu and the quality of the cuisine, but it’s in a more comfortable, relaxed, approachable, chic, sexy, cutting-edge dining room,” Clow said. “We’re going after a vintage vibe, where it isn’t cookie-cutter, where you’re not going to walk in and every single chair looks the same.”
Cedar & Sage, located between Bloomingdale’s and Anthropology, will seat about 50 in the main dining room and around 30 on the outdoor heated patio with infrared heaters and a fireplace. A folded floor-to-ceiling door system will transform the space from two separate seating areas to one larger continuous space.
Architecture and design firm Arcanum, which has created the spaces for a variety of wineries, boutique hotels and restaurants, developed the interior space of Cedar & Sage. A focal point of the dining room are 10 custom paintings depicting R&B and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artists, created by Orange County-based contemporary artist Bill Taylor.
Live music, mostly R&B, will be available four to five nights a week at Cedar & Sage, featuring a mix of local and Southern California-based artists. While hours of operation have not yet been finalized, Clow said he has a feeling that Cedar & Sage will be one of the last businesses open at Stanford Shopping Center.
“When some of the places are done for the night, our place is still going to be that spot where you don’t have to leave the mall and get in your car to go someplace else, even if you just want to go someplace and have a cocktail or a wine flight or some oysters or a dessert, you want to have a sauternes, dessert wine, we’re still going to be there,” he said.
Cedar & Sage isn’t stopping at Palo Alto. Clow plans to expand the concept to other states, although he didn’t specify which.
“We’re going to be that place for the foodies because with the pedigree and the background of the culinary team, but we’re not going to be that place that’s stiff and intimidating,” Clow said. “We want it to be welcoming, approachable, friendly, and at the end of the day, we want our guests to say, ‘Wow.’ We’re trying to deliver a wow experience.”
Cedar & Sage Bistro & Lounge, 1301 Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto; Instagram: @cedarandsagepaloalto. Opening early November.
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