Is The Cats Restaurant Readying to Reopen?

Nearly two years ago, The historic Cats Restaurant in Los Gatos quickly and quietly closed without much warning (see article in the Los Gatos Observer). One of the area's older buildings, it was constructed as a stage coach stop in the late 1800s, possibly around 1896.

Yesterday I was near the tavern, photographing Leo and Leona at the entrance to Poet's Canyon just steps away, and popped by old building to see what was going on with it.

To my surprise, it appeared that The Cats is being made ready to reopen. There were several trucks and workers in view and the parking lot sported new blacktop and parking stripes.

I could not find any news about a reopening, but perhaps some of the Live in Los Gatos readers might know what the story is. Your feedback is appreciated!

The Cats has served many functions over the years and is an area landmark. It would be great to see it open again.

The Cats Restaurant is located at 17533 Santa Cruz Highway, just past the downtown entrance to the freeway from South Santa Cruz Avenue.

Leo and Leona can be seen from this freeway exit too. For more on the two concrete cats, please visit this earlier post: How did Los Gatos get its cat logo?
Scroll down and enjoy slideshow too (just added).

PS November 2, 2008:  Today I received a call from Shelby, who tells me that 3 weeks ago or so she stopped by The Cats when she saw trucks there and spoke with the new owners. She says that they're targeting re-opening sometime this month. That's great news!

Is The Economic Crisis Impacting Los Gatos Home Sales?

Several of my buyers have recently decided to hold off until things calm down with the economy. So I wondered if this was widespread or not. Tonight I checked the sales in Los Gatos (zips 95030 and 95032) for the period of 10/1 - 10/25 this year and last year. Sales are slower than last month but still ahead of last year, generally.

Among single family homes in Los Gatos, there have been 15 homes that went sale pending in that time frame this year, wheras there were 8 last year. For condos and townhomes it was 4 this year and 5 last year - close enough to not be significant in my opinion.

Right now, it does not look terribly bad. Sales are mostly ahead of last year at this same time. That said, we'll know more when ALL the factors are in - price points, list price to sales price ratio, days on market, etc.

Halloween Events In and Near Los Gatos

You probably know about the Haunted Harvest Festival at Oak Meadow Park (blogged about on this site recently). You may not know about the many other fun Halloween related events going on in Silicon Valley, though!  Today I blogged about it on another site of mine, the Valley of Hearts Delight blog. I invite you to have a look at the list of events posted there - see if something doesn't match your free time and interests!  Here's the link: Halloween Events in Silicon Valley.  Happy Halloween!

Mappng the Boundaries of the Town of Los Gatos: This is the Shape We're In!

Another Los Gatos Map Post!

This time I was trying to find a simplified map of the boundaries or borders for the town of Los Gatos online. As a local Realtor, I'm keenly aware of the way the line jumps in and out, espcially along the side with San Jose's Cambrian Park.  This is also true with the border with Monte Sereno, too. No shortage of weirdness along the Campbell line either, though - one whole section has a Los Gatos mailing address but is actually Campbell (voting, police etc). (The latter refers to the triangular shaped tract of Leep homes which runs between Pollard Road, Quito Road and Hwy 85.)

Little tricks like knowing that a 3 digit address on a house usually means Los Gatos but 4 digits usually means San Jose (but knowing that there are exceptions) can be a big help. This is helpful while driving down the road in a border area. But it's still hard to get a grip on what's where, so I went in search of an online map since the large fold-out types that show the exact borders are too big for my use on the web.

The closest thing I found was on the town's website - a map showing zoning regions (also interesting to see). (In fact, if you'd like to see a VERY detailed version of the Los Gatos neighborhood zoning map, the town has that online too, and you can find it here: Los Gatos Zoning Map.)

Definitely closer - if it's not SO busy that it's nearly impossible to follow.

It strikes me that this really is a very odd shape for a town, but perhaps that would be even clearer if we just looked at the shape, removing the zoning info and the excess words and parts of the map:

What's where? To the left side is the intersection with Monte Sereno, Saratoga, and county pockets. (Saratoga is the upper left corner, on the other side of Quito Road.) On the upper right, it's San Jose's Cambrian Park district or county pockets. And to the bottom it's county with Los Gatos mailing address.

Anyway, next time someone asks you what kind of shape Los Gatos is in, you can think of these figures.

Or perhaps you're looking at them like you would clouds in the sky and trying to come up with a shape. That's what I did, I confess.

Do you see anything in it?

Anything?

Step Back in Time with Historic Topographical Map of Los Gatos

While trying to find an old map of Los Gatos online, I stumbled upon some interesting and historic topographical maps of San Jose, Los Gatos, Gilroy, Santa Clara, and other areas nearby care of the USGS. I will place a tiny segment of one here so that you can get the idea and visit the site yourself:

My husband, Jim, loves maps and he tells me that each one of those "dots" visible on the map represents a house. Amazing! Another surprise, to me anyway, is that Kennedy Road looks like it used to be called Rinconada. Other, nearby parts of the map reveal that Camden Avenue was where the rail line used to run to the mines in Almaden and Guadalupe. Cool stuff - hope you enjoy it!

http://bard.wr.usgs.gov/historical/subindex/hist-sanjose.html#NEW%20ALMADEN

Los Gatos Residents: Mark Your Calendars for November 17th

Haunted Harvest Festival at Oak Meadow Park in Los Gatos

Starting October 16th, Oak Meadow Park in Los Gatos will be transformed into a fantabulous Haunted Harvest Festival. Take a self-guided tour along the Goblin’s Glen. The 102 year old Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad will be riding and the hand-painted carosoul will be cruising. Trick or treating is available for the young ones.Tickets are $2 - $8, depending on how much you do. 

Open from sunset to 10pm on these dates: October 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29 ,30, 31

For more information, please see  www.experienceshadowhills.com or call 408-395-7433. if you'd like to volunteer, please contact skeletoncoast@hauntedmansion.com.

Oak Meadow Park is located at  200 Blossom Hill Road  (at University Avenue), Los Gatos, CA 95032.

This is a fundraiser which supports several very good local causes: according to the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce, these fun Halloween events  "Benefit The Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad, The Los Gatos Police Foundation, and The Los Gatos Disaster Aid Response Team (D.A.R.T.)."