After 60 years, Oasis Beer Garden to close
Restaurant owners say they were unable to reach deal on new lease
A beloved, 60-year-old Peninsula and Stanford institution is shutting down, and with it will go the initials of generations of customers carved into the wooden tables.
The Oasis Beer Garden will close March 7, its owners unable to reach a new lease agreement.
The Tougas family posted this note on their Facebook page:
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closing of our beloved bar and restaurant, The Oasis. After several months of effort, we were unable to negotiate a reasonable lease for our business, nor meet the requested terms of the building’s owner. Therefore, we have made the very difficult decision to close our doors and bid farewell to the endearing community of Menlo Park and Stanford University. Our last day of business will be March 7 — please stop in for a visit and
say goodbye!”
The “O” was founded in 1958 and famous for welcoming all strata of Peninsula customers, from hightech tycoons and professors to students and blue-collar workers.
According to the restaurant’s website, “The original furnishings included carved tables and booths, Stanford mementos, a shuffleboard and a mishmash of barroom memorabilia you’d never see any place else. A big 27 black-andwhite Sylvania TV lit up the end of the bar. (We don’t claim to have invented the sports bar, but then again … maybe we did!).”
The building itself actually dates back to World War I, author Barbara Wilcox told the InMenlo website. It was one of several YMCA Camp Fremont buildings based in Menlo Park.
Customers were quick to react — both with nostalgic memories and anger.
“Saddest news ever for Menlo Park native,” read a posting by Clunge on The Almanac website. “In a building that is paid for, the rent there must be all profit yet the owners find a need to milk even more money out of a valued tenant.”
On the InMenlo website, Ali Jennings posted: “This is s travesty. And you can bet it’s all over money. The owners want to go upscale and pay no attention to the history of the establishment. The city of Menlo Park needs to step in before another piece of local history is gone. Do we want nothing but high rise buildings and fancy restaurants? Menlo Park is already starting to lose its charm. Once gone it will never come back.”
One poster, Michael DiMartino, suggested the city of Menlo Park has a responsibility to step in: “We are allowing our social fabric to be torn apart one popular gathering spot at a time. If the owner thought of the ownership of the Oasis building as only a financial investment ripe for conversion to a higherrate-of-return whatever and the current operators wished to continue doing business, the City of Menlo Park needed to step in and assert a different value system, for once and specifically on this occasion. If the owners are wealthy, they should sense a philanthropic duty to keep it open, up to the point that the loss is equal to their other charitable expenses.”
At least one reader hoped that the community could rally around the Oasis as they had when Menlo Park’s also-legendary Kepler’s bookstore was in danger of closing some years ago.
“Wish there were an organized way to reverse this or contribute somehow … sort of like Keplers. I’d put in some $ to keep the O open. Is there still a chance?” JM posted.