Round Table Pizza Closes In Palo Alto

PALO ALTO, CA —Looks like Round Table Pizza is no more on University Avenue, which remains a bit of a mystery why.

The place on the busy Silicon Valley thoroughfare that leads into Stanford University has been boarded up as of Aug. 19.

The longtime downtown pizza location has closed up shop at 263 University Ave. and is now plastered with "for lease" signs, according to a report on Palo Alto Online. However, Bayside Realty Partners refused numerous times to provide information on the closure or if the space has any takers going forward.

The Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce didn't have anything to submit. The local government had nothing to add either.

Since the operations are franchised, the staffers at the Round Table Pizza location on Colorado Avenue in Palo Alto had no information on the demise of the pizza place. An employee there said she heard the location was bought out, but that assumption was unsubstantiated and declared untrue by the property leasing company.

Either way, the closure represents the loss of a restaurant offering a decent meal at a discounted price — one with a history. The first Round Table Pizza got its start up the San Francisco Peninsula in Menlo Park in 1959.

"I had customers come in and tell me about it," said Carmen Aguilar, the manager at the El Camino Real, Menlo Park location.

Aguilar admitted she didn't know why the location went under but estimated the closure had to do with either the owner struggling to pay high rent in Palo Alto's downtown area or getting reliable help since finding affordable housing is a challenge in the region.

"We can't find anyone around here. They all end up in Modesto. There's no affordable housing here," Aguilar told Patch.

Read the full Palo Alto online story.