Post #747152 by gjgonzalez on Wed, Jul 15, 2015 2:41 PM

I remember the Lanai all to well. If you lived in the mid peninsula and you turned 21 the first stop was the Lanai. I have a friend of mine Alvin, who worked at the Villa Hotel for many years, and his mother worked in the coffee shop probably since it opened. There was a question about the new Lanai that opened in San Mateo after the original closed; my friend Mitchel Haake bought all the interior decor and opened the new Lanai, it was in a small shopping center across from the Fish Market and was built in the former B of A bank. I remember helping Mitchel build the inside of the new restaurant with the decor he bought and put it together as closely as possible to the original. I especially remember that the walk in cooler was the old bank vault.

Mitchel also owed T&B's in Belmont next to 101 at Ralston behind the gas station there. He now owes and operates Cilantro's down the Peninsula some, I think it's in San Carlos or Redwood city; been there but it's been a while