This hot Peninsula development launches with a buzzy new restaurant

Anticipation has been building in Menlo Park around Springline, a major mixed-use development on El Camino Real that promises to change the character of the quiet Peninsula city with a tenant lineup of splashy Bay Area restaurants and Silicon Valley venture capital firms.

The first restaurant to debut there is a local one: Canteen, the second act from chef-owner Greg Kuzia-Carmel of the popular Menlo Park restaurant Camper. Canteen, a more casual, European-inspired restaurant and wine bar, recently opened at 550 Oak Grove Ave.

Kuzia-Carmel intends Canteen to be the kind of place where people drop in for a drink and lots of shareable snacks, in the same spirit of coastal European cities like San Sebastian, Spain, and Portugal’s capital city of Lisbon. Think crudos, oysters and garlicky tomato toast with a spritz.

It’s a small space, with eight seats at a white marble bar, a single six-seat communal table and smaller tables in a shared lobby space (outdoor seating will come soon). When customers take a number for their orders, they’ll be stamped on a miniature, colorful surf fin. Rather than a full-service restaurant, the idea is “something a little bit more irreverent, fun and informal,” Kuzia-Carmel said.

The menu is mostly small dishes, with a heavy focus on local seafood and Spanish influence — unsurprising given Kuzia-Carmel cooked at the famed Mugaritz in San Sebastian before working at acclaimed fine-dining spots Per Se in New York City and Quince in San Francisco. Cured striped bass is paired with smoked crème fraiche and pimenton. Gambas al ajillo, a Spanish garlic shrimp dish, takes on Bay Area character with a sauce more similar to cioppino. Fish dishes will change with the seasons, from halibut crudo to salmon tartar and spot prawns. Other snacky plates include kabocha squash croquettes and a hasselback eggplant topped with salsa macha.

Panisse, fried batons of chickpea flour from Southern France — a hit on the Camper menu, where they’re re-imagined as crispy gnocchi — are served at Canteen in the form of fries with a stewed tomatoes and habanero dipping sauce.

The sole large entree is an indulgent one: a $120 bone-in New York strip steak meant to be shared with a group. It’s inspired by Bar Néstor, a tiny San Sebastian pintxo bar known for its gorgeous bone-in steaks sprinkled generously all over with flaky salt. (It’s also where Kuzia-Carmel and his now-wife got engaged.)

He hopes Canteen will become a draw for its cocktails, too. There will always be a gin and tonic on the menu, plus light, fun drinks like a Spanishinflected spritz made with a citrusy Mommenpop Seville orange aperitif, Manzanilla sherry and seltzer. The wine list leans European. Notably, every wine is available by the glass as well as the bottle. Expect multiple nonalcoholic drinks, like a booze-free gin mixed with a pear-apple shrub.

Ocean-inspired decor takes the form of a trippy, wave-like art installation by Schuyler Beecroft of San Francisco surf shop Mollusk and a wooden surfboard made by woodworker and surfer Danny Hess of San Francisco’s Woodshop. The small dining room spills out into a lobby area shared with the Springline apartments.

Initially open 4-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, Canteen will eventually expand to daytime hours.

This year, Canteen will be joined by notable San Francisco spots including Italian favorite Che Fico, which is opening an Italian restaurant and Italian market at Springline; Robin, a high-end omakase restaurant; and the popular Barebottle Brewing Co., whose new 3,600square-foot taproom will be Menlo Park’s only brewery. Mirame, a popular, upscale Mexican restaurant from Los Angeles, is also expanding here. Springline will have two cafes: Kuzia-Carmel’s coffee shop, also called Canteen, which opened late last year, and an outpost of San Francisco’s Andytown Coffee.

All the restaurants will share outdoor seating in a plaza that will feature a 1950s Citroen beer truck from Barebottle, as well as concerts, lectures and other public events.

Springline’s strategy is clear: Buzzy restaurants will be a major draw for people moving into the development’s apartments and offices, as well as people who live up and down the Peninsula. Springline is a short walk from the Menlo Park Caltrain station, and not far from Highways 101 and 280. Steve Mohebi, whose co-working company Canopy rents office space at Springline, previously told The Chronicle,“we have been name-dropping the bejesus out of ” the restaurants.

“Hopefully, with all the other restaurant operators coming here, this can be a place that is the destination as opposed to just the stop along the way,” Kuzia-Carmel said.

Canteen. 4-9 p.m. MondaySaturday. 550 Oak Grove Ave., Menlo Park. canteen.studio

Photos by Salgu Wissmath/The Chronicle Canteen has the vibe of casual spots in coastal Europe. Think crudos, oysters and tomato toast.

Canteen is the first of a lineup of new restaurants heading to Springline, a huge development in Menlo Park that wants to become a dining destination.

Canteen's bone-in New York strip steak is inspired by a bar in San Sebastian, Spain, and is meant to be shared with a group.

Chef-owner Greg Kuzia-Carmel of the popular Menlo Park restaurant Camper has opened Canteen also in Menlo Park.