Burlingame's Downtown Is Turning the Corner Onto Park Road

"Buildings like this come around maybe once in a lifetime," Tim Stannard told SFGate this month, describing his first walk through the old Burlingame Main Post Office in 2022. "When I walked inside, my jaw dropped."

On October 1, that building opened as a restaurant. It sits on the same Park Road block as the Town Square that opened in April, the Sunday farmers market and, this December, the community tree lighting. For decades downtown Burlingame ran east to west along Burlingame Avenue. Through the rest of 2026, more and more of what happens downtown is running north to south along Park Road, and the next few months show that shift more clearly than anything before.

The Building That Set the Bar on Park Road

The Old Post Office comes from Bacchus Management Group, the hospitality group behind Spruce in San Francisco, Selby's in Atherton and the Village Pub in Woodside. Stannard, Bacchus's founding partner and president, told SFGate it is the group's most expensive launch in more than 25 years and about a dozen restaurants. It was also the easiest one to find investors for.

Because the building is historic, much of the old post office stays exactly as it was. The early 1940s building has Spanish and Art Deco details. In the lobby, now the dining room, the locally quarried marble wainscoting, the terrazzo floor inlaid with brass, the brass teller windows and the individual mailboxes could not be changed. Above them sit a 92-seat dining room, 600-pound chandeliers hanging from a 25-foot ceiling, and walls covered in 350 yards of brown-sugar mohair. The postmaster's office is now the 22-seat Postmaster's Bar.

The dining room serves a three-course prix fixe for $120, and the bar has an à la carte menu. Stannard told SFGate that Bacchus is aiming for a Michelin star and a Wine Spectator Grand Award, which Spruce, Selby's and the Village Pub have all held. He calls those restaurants "simultaneously neighborhood restaurant and destination worthy."

The neighborhood part shows up in the hours. Eater SF reports dinner daily from 5 to 10 p.m., weekday lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., and weekend brunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. SFGate says lunch and brunch start in mid-October. Eater and SFist both give the address as 220 Park Road. SFGate's listing shows 222.

A Square Designed as a Room

Town Square sits between Park Road and Lorton Avenue. It opened in April with a small center stage for entertainment and community events.

The city is protecting that space on purpose. A vendor operating policy from the Burlingame/SFO Chamber of Commerce, effective August 2026, keeps the square for artisan, retail and specialty food vendors who sell packaged or pre-prepared goods. Cooking, grilling, frying and any other on-site food prep are not allowed on the square. Every vendor has to put a tarp or floor covering under their booth to protect the tile, and vendor vehicles stay off the square unless the city and the Chamber authorize an exception in advance.

Paying for the square follows the same idea. At an April City Council Economic Development Subcommittee meeting, Councilmember Donna Colson pointed out that engraved Town Square pavers are available for $20,000 each. The money goes to the Parks & Recreation Foundation for ongoing Town Square programming.

So the square is the stage, and the food comes from the restaurants around it. The square's first Music Trivia night, on Saturday, October 10, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., follows that pattern. Taddy's Tunes hosts, with questions on rock, soul and R&B from the mid-1960s through the 1990s. Food comes from three nearby restaurants: Sapore Italiano at 1447 Burlingame Ave., Copenhagen Bakery & Café at 1216 Burlingame Ave., which has served the Bay Area since 1977, and Gigi's Cafe. The San Francisco Giants are donating prizes. Admission is free. The Chamber hasn't said whether trivia will repeat.

The Market Splits Around the Tile

The vendor policy changes how the farmers market lays out. Booths that cook, grill or need grease-producing equipment go to "other appropriate areas of the Farmers Market." The Chamber can move vendors around to keep a balanced mix. On market days, browsing artisan and packaged goods happens on the tile, and hot food stays out on the street.

There are two markets to keep straight this time of year:

• Burlingame Fresh Market, Sundays. The San Mateo County certified farmers market directory lists it at 200–240 Park Road at Burlingame Avenue, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., year-round. The county's market detail page gives a 1:30 p.m. close, so plan on the earlier time.
• Fresh Thursday Market, 3 to 7 p.m. It started May 7 on Park Road. The county directory lists the season as May through October on one page and May through November on another. Either way, Thursday afternoons are in their last weeks for 2026.

Once Thursdays wrap up, the Sunday market is the one weekly fixture left on Park Road through winter.

The Calendar Bends Toward Park Road

Here are the dates between now and the end of the year. Most of them are close to the square, and the biggest one is moving onto it.

1. Saturday, October 10, 5 to 6:30 p.m. Music Trivia on Town Square.
2. Mid-October. Weekday lunch and weekend brunch begin at the Old Post Office.
3. Wednesday, October 21, 6 to 8 p.m. A short walk up the Avenue at the Burlingame Community Center, 850 Burlingame Ave., the Citizens Environmental Council hosts a free screening of the bat documentary "The Invisible Mammal," followed by a Q&A with San Francisco filmmaker Kristin Tièche. Admission is free, but you have to register ahead.
4. Sunday, October 25, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Downtown Fall Fest, with a petting zoo, children's activities, a train ride, arts and crafts, specialty foods, music and a costume contest.
5. Mid-November through mid-January. The Downtown Business Improvement District plans to put up holiday lighting for this stretch, according to the April subcommittee minutes. Exact dates haven't been announced.
6. Friday, December 4, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Winterfest, where the train ride and hot chocolate come after the traditional tree lighting.

The tree lighting is the clearest sign of the move. In December 2025, the Downtown Business Improvement District's minutes said the 2026 ceremony would move to the new Town Square. At the April meeting, Parks & Recreation Director Margaret Glomstad said the square would "likely" host it. The minutes also note some community interest in bringing back a holiday parade. A downtown business owner on the district board said organizing a parade takes a lot of staff time, and that downtown stays lively during Winterfest without one.

What Opens Next, and What Waits Until Spring

The block isn't finished. Two of the biggest pieces are still months away, and the Avenue keeps adding businesses that draw people toward the Park Road corner.

The Gigi's story connects old downtown to new. Owner Teresa Gee told The Almanac she grew up going to Sam's Italian Sandwich, which spent nearly 50 years at the Burlingame Train Depot. When she heard the space was for rent, she took it, and she visited Sam's owner Rino Betti to tell him the legacy would live on. The new shop is under 600 square feet, so it will be takeout only, with outdoor seating. It will carry Gigi's signature sandwiches, priced from $16.50 to $26.99, including the Sam Sandwich with salami, ham and Swiss. The Thanksgiving Dinner Sandwich, which the original cafe offers only every three months, will be on the Depot menu year-round. The original Gigi's Cafe is a 10-minute drive away and stays open.

Stella & Dot's shop at 1412 Burlingame Ave. is the company's first physical boutique ever. Avenue Pet Spa at 1427 Burlingame Ave. offers grooming, massage and pet sitting. Both opened this fall, a few doors from the Park Road corner.

By spring 2027, if those timelines hold, the Old Post Office will have its solarium seating 60 more people next to the square, and Gigi's will be serving out of the depot. Between those openings, Town Square's first holiday season will be the first big test of how the block works as downtown's gathering place.

If a downtown block that keeps getting better has you thinking about what it means for your own street, Sandy and I keep a close eye on how changes like the Park Road block show up in Burlingame. Andrew Klink offers a complimentary Peninsula market consultation whenever you'd like to talk it through.