Hobee's California Restaurants will open its 9th location in the former Bakers Square location at 165 Los Gatos-Saratoga Rd. (Hwy 9). The family restaurants are known for their cinnamon coffee cake, iced tea, and for hosting Silicon Valley meetings that have produced more than a few new companies.
"We just signed the lease Wednesday," revealed Edward Fike, Hobee's president. "We're thrilled to get this location; it's been on our radar for a long time."
The chain, headquarted in Palo Alto, consists of 8 restaurants in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. The story began in 1974 in Mountain View, when Paul Taber took over a defunct restaurant not unlike our Bakers Square. It's still a family business, and Paul's son Peter is now chairman of the board. The other locations are The Pruneyard in Campbell, Stanford Shopping Center, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Montague Expressway, and Redwood Shores.
Hobee's are locations for power breakfasts and other Silicon Valley discussions. "We are known for having a whos-who of high tech," Fike says. Marc Andreesen, one of the inventors of the web browser, is reportedly a regular at the Palo Alto restaurant, and the PayPal success story began at a Hobee's. With so many tech luminaries in Los Gatos, having Hobee's here seems like a natural.
