While Tuesday is frequently a day off for restaurant industry workers, April 5 was actually quite a hectic one for Tony Loeffler, general manager of the Palms restaurant.
The day’s schedule included deep cleaning in the kitchen, and manifesting an Easter buffet brunch—among myriad other tasks—at the historic Coggeshall Mansion on 115 N. Santa Cruz Ave. it calls home.
“We’re pretty much dead-center in the heart of Los Gatos,” Loeffler said, reflecting on their prominent location in town that once housed a funeral home and a steakhouse. “Several generations of Los Gatans have their own memories of the old Victorian on North Santa Cruz.”
The extent to which this fact was simply surface-level versus something deeper was tested during the coronavirus pandemic.
The food and beverage world was upended as the virus spread and lockdowns began. Restaurants that were once an important gathering point for Silicon Valley diners were suddenly seen as potential sites of community transmission and could no longer host guests.
But thanks to a partnership with World Central Kitchen, the Palms found a new purpose.
It began preparing food for first responders, ultimately serving-up three meals per day to four hospitals, three times a week.
The idea behind the chicken udon with vegetables, beef teriyaki and rice, and vegetarian cuisine for nurses, doctors and other health care workers was to provide meals that didn’t break the bank but were still wholesome, Loeffler explains.
“It enabled me to keep the business afloat during this awkward and unprecedented time,” he said. “It was also a privilege to serve these guys. They’re the ones in constant contact with this germ.”
He estimates they cooked-up 36,000 meals over six months, which the pandemic front-liners didn’t have to pay for.
After management stints at the since-demolished Jack Rose Libation House, and the Forbes Mill Steakhouse, Loeffler was invited to help launch the Palms, which opened in 2018.
The original concept was Hawaiian, but this was eventually tweaked to showcase food from all shores touched by the Pacific Ocean.
“It can be any kind of protein or cooking style that falls into the Pacific Rim,” he said, remembering how many customers appeared for the launch. “We tried to contain it to the patio, and the main dining floor; and the next thing we knew we had to open up the deck; and then people wanted to go upstairs.”
Now, the Palms is the place you go if you want to share a glass of wine with a date, chow down on some Chilean sea bass, or cut into the boneless kalbi beef steak.
“We’re not pretentious,” he said. “We don’t try to be something that we’re really not.”
The restaurant also invites live bands to the old mansion on Thursday nights to entertain patrons.
“People ask me what’s my job,” he said. “Without being too corny, I tell people my job is to throw a party every single day of the week. And my job is to make sure that all of my guests that are at my party are having a good time.”
Now that the pandemic appears to be waning, Loeffler says he hopes the phobia of being out in public will die off.
“I’m looking forward to things becoming normal again,” he said. “I want people to feel safe coming out to eat and drink.”
He says, whether you’re coming in to spend $20 or $200, you’re welcome in the space.
“I think we all need that—a little bit of release,” he said. “Don’t be a stranger. Come by.”
