Last Friday, my teens and I stopped for lunch at The Purple Onion, a new Los Gatos restaurant, which opened April 18th at the former site of Caffe Siena (Main Street and College Avenue, across from The Penthouse Apartments). We enjoyed outside dining and experienced prompt, polite service and great food, so it is something I wanted to share here on "Live in Los Gatos".
As with its predecessor, at The Purple Onion, customers order at the counter, pay (they do take credit cards, though there's no logos for them on the front entry), and find a seat. Servers will bring the food to you. Tables and chairs are available both indoors and out.
My kids each ordered sandwiches and I ordered a salad. Brian's was a hot sandwich, and it was so good he had a hard time keeping it on his plate between bites. Clair had a french roll with salami or prociutto and she, too, savored hers. For me it was the Cafe Salad, a wonderful mix of chicken, cranberries, a soft cheese, pistachios, greens and even a few flower petals - which made the presentation lovely - with a sweet vinegarette dressing. We ordered soft drinks as well and our total, with tax (before tipping) was about $41.00.
This morning I returned with camera in hand to take a few pics and hopefully to meet the proprietors. (I came away with coffee and sweet rolls for home.) I was in luck and met Steve Angelo, the chef/owner, and Lisa Hanson, pastry chef & party planner. I had not realized, the week before, that The Purple Onion offers catering too, but overheard a patron inquiring about it. The store's website has information on catering, too.
The Purple Onion is open Tues-Sun from 7am to 4pm, closed on Mondays. It is located at 26 E Main St
Los Gatos, CA 95030. Tel 408 354-4124. Or visit their catering site online: www.purpleonion-catering.com.
Parking is easy. There's a lot behind the Soda Works shopping area. Just don't park in one of the 15 minute zones. You'll never want to leave that fast.
Recently I was suprised to learn that there is a quarantine map (click on the image to enlarge it) for most of Santa Clara County, and it includes most of Los Gatos, Saratoga, Monte Sereno and Almaden Valley too, for the Light Brown Apple Moth treatment plan.
What does the quarantine mean?
For most of us, it means that produce (your homegrown fruits and vegetables) can't move around within the zone. In Los Gatos, if you are northeast of Saratoga Los Gatos Road (Highway 9) or Kennedy Road, it means that you cannot share produce from your garden with your neighbors. (Please see the link above for the exact map boundaries.) That is, unless you've cooked or canned it or otherwise rendered it no-longer-fresh. In many neighborhoods, it's the norm for neighbors to share some of their excess fruits and vegetables with friends and neighbors, so this is counter-intuitive.
So don't share your garden fresh produce beyond your property boundaries this year if you're "in the zone". A recent article by the San Jose Mercury explains why this is so risky, so if this is news to you, as it was to me, have a look.
Los Gatans recently have been amazed to see so much big crime-related news of their fair town hit the web. Usually the Los Gatos events of the unsavory variety consists of things like drunk in public, things stolen out of unlocked cars, or personal fights gone physical.
But not so long ago, Los Gatos had a murder - the first in 5 years in this "low crime town".
Then, Lunardi's Market, a favorite grocery store here in town, had thefts from their debit machines in the checkout stands that totalled hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And in the last week or two, there were two bank robberies.
Those are just the major items. Since when did Los Gatos get so much crime?
On the plus side, of course, is that suspects have been apprehended in all but one of the bank robberies - so far. Many thanks to the Los Gatos - Monte Sereno Police for that.
The poor economy is hard on most everyone, so perhaps that explains some of the uptick in Los Gatos crime.
Yesterday's San Jose Mercury (and the Los Gatos Weekly-Times), though, ran a piece about why our fair town continues to attract businesses. The article is "'Quality of life' attracts businesses to Los Gatos".
It is good to be reminded about what's right in town and too easy to dwell on what's wrong. Recently my husband and I spent a Sunday afternoon strolling downtown Los Altos - a lovely town where we'd once considered living. We were amazed that two-thirds of the shops were closed on a perfect summer day. A few interesting places were open, but more often we found that shops that appealled to us were not open. It was a reminder of how vibrant our downtown is. That's just one aspect of the "quality of life" in Los Gatos that can't be beat. Add to that our summer music, Shakespeare, movie nights and so much more, and you have a community that's highly desireable even when things are seeming bleak in many areas of the economy or valley life generally.
What's the housing market in Los Gatos doing in these final weeks of summer? How's the real estate business in Los Gatos faring amid all the doom and gloom of the mortgage implosion? Are Los Gatos homes selling?
Anecdotally, I can tell you that lenders have tightened up their requirements, sales are down and buyers are pickier than ever. Buyers are waiting for prices to come down more for most homes (except the totally remodeled ones which are priced extremely competitively). Many sellers are not willing to sell in the current climate, so the local Los Gatos inventory is not terribly high. Some homes, then, are still selling with multiple offers, while others remain unsold.
Below, please see first the pricing, by quartile, of single family homes in Los Gatos. (These are list prices, not sold prices.)
The first graph reflects the 95030 zip code, which is entirely in the Los Gatos School District.
The following graph displays list prices of single family homes within the 95032 zip code. Much of this zip code is not in the Los Gatos School District, but some of it is.
Next, please see the information for pricing of condominiums and townhomes in the town of Los Gatos, again by both zip code and by quartile.
Here's the report for townhouses and condos in Los Gatos by quartile for 95030.
And here's the same report but for the 95032 zip code:
Below please find reports based on listing prices by zip code and home type (single family or condo/townhome) as well as by zip code. The beginning of the reports will appear the same for both zip codes (95030 and 95032) but go deeper into the report and you will see the neighborhood stats, which are different than those of the town as a whole.
A blog about Los Gatos real estate, homes, houses, condos, townhomes, housing market, neightborhoods, history, events, businesses, parks, schools, photos, issues, and lifestyle.
Mary Pope-Handy
Realtor, CRS, ABR, SRES, E-PRO
Luxor Real Estate Group
Mailing Address for Mary: PO Box 440 Los Gatos, CA 95031-0440
877 397-5391 (office/toll-free)
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Last Friday, my teens and I stopped for lunch at The Purple Onion, a new Los Gatos restaurant, which opened April 18th at the former site of Caffe Siena (Main Street and College Avenue, across from The Penthouse Apartments). We enjoyed outside dining and experienced prompt, polite service and great food, so it is something I wanted to share here on "
My kids each ordered sandwiches and I ordered a salad. Brian's was a hot sandwich, and it was so good he had a hard time keeping it on his plate between bites. Clair had a french roll with salami or prociutto and she, too, savored hers. For me it was the Cafe Salad, a wonderful mix of chicken, cranberries, a soft cheese, pistachios, greens and even a few flower petals - which made the presentation lovely - with a sweet vinegarette dressing. We ordered soft drinks as well and our total, with tax (before tipping) was about $41.00.
The Purple Onion is open Tues-Sun from 7am to 4pm, closed on Mondays. It is located at 26 E Main St 
Recently I was suprised to learn that there is a 
Los Gatans recently have been amazed to see so much big crime-related news of their fair town hit the web. Usually the Los Gatos events of the unsavory variety consists of things like drunk in public, things stolen out of unlocked cars, or personal fights gone physical. 
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