Woodside's Village, Rewritten: A Local's Summer 2026 Field Notes

For a long time the running joke about Woodside was that the town had one Michelin restaurant, one 19th-century grocery store, and a great many horses. That description is no longer complete. In the last twelve months the village core has picked up a Birdsong-trained chef inside a 1902 storefront, Filoli has rebuilt its summer programming around repeat visits rather than a single garden walk-through, and the evening rotation between 84 and Cañada now includes a French bistro alongside the familiar prix fixe upstairs. This is a note for people who already live here, on what has actually changed since last summer and how to use it.

The Little Store, back on the map

The most consequential opening in the village is not new construction. It is the reopening of The Little Store, the olive-green building on Woodside Road that carries a wooden sign celebrating its standing since 1902. For years it served as a test kitchen for Hero Bread and stayed closed to the public. In September, Aubriana Kasper and co-owner Gena Winter reopened The Little Store, offering floral arrangements along with breakfast and lunch service from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

Two details make this more than a cafe. First, the kitchen. They brought in head chef Sierra Hazel, formerly of the two-Michelin-starred Birdsong in San Francisco, to lead the kitchen. Second, the pedigree behind the counter. Kasper and Winter, formerly of San Francisco-based Sightglass Coffee, met in 2015 and opened San Francisco coffee and flower shop Marigold in 2018.

What that means in practice, if you have been picking up a plain buttered scone somewhere else on Saturday mornings: the current menu runs to a harvest bowl built on herbed yogurt, a burrito with tater tots and chipotle crema, and a jambon on French baguette in the $14 to $16 range, with a whipped-avocado toast at $14, plus an adaptable breakfast sandwich on housemade buttermilk cheddar biscuits at $17. The window nook is the seat everyone fights for. If you have small children who bike home through the village after school, know this too: The Little Store plans to eventually push hours to 4 p.m., largely because Kasper's kids' friends keep asking her to stay open longer for after-school pastries.

Filoli's summer is different this year

Filoli has always been the estate at the end of Cañada Road that hosts more visitors than the town itself does. What changed on May 30 is how the property wants you to use it.

On May 30, Filoli debuted Creating Home, a new property-wide exhibit focused on the people, trees, and animals that call Filoli home, launching alongside a Kids Go Free summer offer. The centerpiece is not indoors. The experience features an all-new large-scale outdoor installation by California artist Jayson Fann in the estate's redwoods and Natural Lands, drawing on his lifelong approach to nest building as both sculpture and experience, and constructed from naturally found wood and organic materials. Inside the house, immersive room vignettes are "frozen in time" to highlight the historic staff who shaped Filoli into a home, and there are stations where visitors record their own family stories.

The economics of the summer offer are worth paying attention to for anyone with school-age kids or visiting grandchildren. Starting May 30, 2026, children ages 14 and under get in free with every full-price adult ticket, up to three children per paid adult. Against a listed adult admission of $39 and a $29 rate for kids aged 5 to 17, that is a meaningful shift in how a family of four uses a Sunday. It also encourages what the exhibit's design assumes: the experience is designed for repeat discovery throughout the season, inviting guests to uncover new moments across the estate all summer long.

Practical note. Filoli is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 86 Cañada Road, Woodside, CA 94062. Tickets should be reserved in advance. If you can only manage one visit this summer, aim for a weekday morning to avoid the wedding-photo traffic in the formal garden.

The evening rotation, expanded

Two years ago the honest answer to "where should we take my parents when they fly in" was The Village Pub, or a thirty-minute drive somewhere else. The evening options inside town have widened.

The Village Pub remains the anchor. The Village Pub is a One Star: High quality cooking restaurant in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide USA. Open since 2001, it holds one Michelin star and the Wine Spectator Grand Award, and it works in a contemporary Californian idiom rooted in French and Mediterranean tradition. The three-course prix fixe is still the frame of the meal, and every dinner begins with fluffy golden brown Parker House rolls served warm with Vermont butter.

The Firehouse Bistro now occupies the former firehouse. It reads as the mid-week alternative the village had been missing. In the owners' own description, it is Woodside's newest restaurant offering a modern interpretation of classic French comfort food with an emphasis on seasonal ingredients, with a full bar and both indoor and open-air seating. This is the place to send guests when The Village Pub is booked, or when you do not want to eat a prix fixe on a Wednesday.

The Mountain House, up Skyline, is worth remembering as your "we have a car and it is still light out" option. The menu highlights game meats and a curated California and Old World wine list, and the unassuming red cabin along the redwoods is now owned and operated by chefs Dmitry Elperin and William Roberts.

"Roberts Market now hosts billionaires like Charles Schwab and one of the wealthiest people in the world, Larry Ellison." — The Takeout, January 2026

The morning constants

The counterweight to all this novelty is that the working village has not changed. That is a feature.

Roberts Market is the store you already know. What outsiders keep discovering is how old it is. Roberts Market has been around for 137 years and now serves some of the most exclusive clientele in the country. Roberts' grandson moved the store from San Francisco to its Woodside spot in the 1960s, where it has been ever since, and in the latter half of the 20th century it expanded from meat and fish to carry caviar, organic store-brand juices, and made-to-order deli sandwiches. The wine program under John, its buyer since 1994, is quietly one of the best small selections on the Peninsula, with a strong lean toward Burgundy and Pinot Noir. If you have not asked at the counter for a wine pairing above your usual pour, do that this summer.

Cars and Coffee continues on Saturday mornings at Town Hall. The town calendar lists a Woodside Cars and Coffee at Town Hall, 2955 Woodside Road as a recurring morning event, and it is still the most efficient way to see six-figure machinery without leaving 94062. Pair it with a walk over to The Little Store afterward.

Movie Nights at Independence Hall are the town's soft social infrastructure. The town's calendar has hosted evenings such as a Town of Woodside Movie Night at Independence Hall, 2955 Woodside Road. It is worth subscribing to the town's calendar rather than trying to catch these through word of mouth.

A workable summer Saturday, using only what is inside town

• 8:30 a.m. Cars and Coffee at Town Hall. Walk, do not drive, if you live within a mile.
• 9:30 a.m. The Little Store. Order the biscuit sandwich; take a small bouquet home.
• 11:00 a.m. A short loop at Huddart or Wunderlich if the kids need to be tired by lunch.
• 12:30 p.m. Deli counter at Roberts Market. Ask what the butcher recommends for Sunday.
• 2:00 p.m. Filoli for the Creating Home installation in the redwoods. Kids go free through the summer.
• 7:00 p.m. The Firehouse Bistro on a weeknight, or The Village Pub if the occasion warrants Parker House rolls.

Why this matters, if you have lived here long enough to remember when it did not

The pattern under all of the above is that the village is now generating its own weekend, rather than serving as the exit point to someone else's. A cafe with a Birdsong-alum chef is not a small detail in a town of roughly six thousand. Filoli engineering its exhibit for repeat visits rather than one annual tour is a real change in how families use the property. And the fact that The Village Pub kept its star in the 2026 guide while a French bistro opened three doors down means the evening options finally have depth.

The people who live in Woodside because they wanted quiet, land, and a working town with no traffic lights did not want any of that to change. It has not. What has changed is what you can actually do on a Saturday without getting in the car.

If you are thinking about a move within Woodside or from an adjacent town on the Peninsula and want a candid read on how the village and its outlying estates trade against each other this year, Scott Dancer has worked this market since 1984. Let's Connect.