Burlingame's Dining Clock Reset in October: Dinner Moved Toward Park Road, and Broadway Grill Switched to Breakfast

Where do you go for a weeknight dinner in Burlingame now? Since October, the new answers are on Park Road and Lorton Avenue, and Broadway Grill, a longtime choice, is now a breakfast stop. Between October 1 and October 17, two restaurant openings, two added meal services and one change of hours on Broadway shifted when you can eat at some of the town's best-known places.

Nothing closed outright, and nothing on the list is a pop-up. The blocks around Park Road and Lorton Avenue added a full day of service, from weekday lunch through 10 p.m. dinner. One of Broadway's longest-running dinner rooms moved to mornings. If you plan meals by the hour, the map looks different this month.

Seventeen days in October, in order

The changes landed close together, so here they are by date:

1. October 1: The Old Post Office opens for dinner at 222 Park Road.
2. October 10: Broadway Grill at 1400 Broadway serves its last regular public dinner.
3. October 11: Marufuku Ramen opens at 225 Lorton Avenue.
4. October 12: The Old Post Office adds weekday lunch.
5. October 17: The Old Post Office adds weekend brunch.

Within those 17 days, the downtown side gained a restaurant serving every meal of the day and a ramen shop open seven days a week. In the same stretch, Broadway lost one of its public dinner options and gained a five-day breakfast.

The old post office now runs three services a day

Most of downtown's new hours come from the building on Park Road. The Old Post Office comes from Bacchus Management Group, the team behind The Village Pub, Spruce and Selby's. According to the San Mateo Scoop, executive chef Jonathan Granada describes the food as contemporary American with Asian, Spanish and French influences. It takes inspiration from classic 1940s restaurant dishes and French technique.

The Scoop's menu rundown includes grilled Maine lobster tail, white polenta tortellini with Iberico ham consommé, crispy pig's tail with parsley-root aligot, and a dry-aged duck prepared tableside.

The adjacent Postmaster's Bar is the easier weeknight option. Its à la carte menu includes duck confit, roast chicken, salads and a burger. The main dining room takes reservations online or by phone. Seats in the Postmaster's Bar and lounge are first-come, first-served.

Eater SF lists these hours:

• Lunch: Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Weekend brunch: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• Dinner: daily, 5 to 10 p.m.

What survived from the 1940s

The building matters as much as the menu. City of Burlingame historic review documents date the post office to 1941–1942 and describe it as Spanish Eclectic with Art Deco elements. The review found it eligible for both the National Register and the city's historic register, and a preservation covenant governs future changes.

The interior features the City's review lists as defining the building's character include terrazzo flooring, marble wainscoting, the original service windows and the original hanging ceiling light fixtures. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the original teller windows and brass mailboxes stayed in the restaurant. It also reported that postal service moved to a smaller nearby facility in the mid-2010s.

The building's art was saved too. "The Letter" is a pair of identical sculptural panels by Los Angeles sculptor James Hanson, chosen by competition and placed over both the Park Road and Lorton Avenue entrances. The panel on the Lorton Avenue side was slated for salvage, and the City's review proposed remounting it over the stairs at the public entrance to the new parking garage.

The restaurant sits in the historic post office portion of the 220 Park redevelopment. A 2020 City staff report describes a plan that paired restoring the post office with a six-story office and retail project and a proposed public plaza on adjoining Parking Lot E. The restaurant is what brought the restored building back into public use, years after the redevelopment was first planned.

One block over, a second all-day option on Lorton

Ten days after the post office opened, Marufuku Ramen opened its Burlingame location at 225 Lorton Avenue. The kitchen focuses on Hakata-style tonkotsu: a creamy pork-bone broth served over thin noodles.

The broth is the reason for the menu, and it takes hours. The Burlingame location's manager, Yuki Sakakibara, described the process to Scot Scoop:

"We spend a lot of time cooking it, and we also need to control the temperatures. After many hours, the broth is going to be the creamy broth that you try in the restaurant."

Sakakibara told Scot Scoop the soup is refrigerated after cooking so its flavors can settle.

The hours are what change your week. The Burlingame-Hillsborough Times lists Monday through Friday service from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday it serves straight through from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Burlingame location page lists a phone number and an online ordering link for takeout.

So the Park Road and Lorton blocks now have two kitchens that open before noon and stay open into the evening. One is a tableside-duck dining room in a 1940s landmark. The other is a ramen shop where a weekend bowl at 3 p.m. is an option.

Broadway Grill kept the building and changed the hour

On Broadway, the change went the other way. Broadway Grill at 1400 Broadway ended regular dinner service after Saturday, October 10, the Burlingame-Hillsborough Times reported. The family-owned restaurant launched a new breakfast menu, served Wednesday through Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Bottomless mimosas are available on Saturday mornings.

Dinner hasn't disappeared from the building. The Burlingame Chamber of Commerce announced that it is moving to private celebrations and community events. The restaurant's own site now promotes breakfast, with dinner available by private event. Its menu highlights include chicken and dumplings, the Broadway cheeseburger, mushroom ravioli, pork schnitzel and brunch dishes.

The people behind the change are the ones who have run the place for more than six years. The San Mateo Daily Journal reported that Broadway Grill had operated for about 12 years when Asta Venclovaite and Dziugas Dzikaras bought it. The couple took over in June 2020 after an escrow period that began in February. They took over in the early months of the pandemic, and in October they changed their main service hours.

For people near Broadway, the practical effect is simple. Broadway Grill is now a weekend-morning and late-breakfast spot five days a week. It's closed to the public on Mondays and Tuesdays, and a dinner there now means booking a private event.

A week of meals in Burlingame, by the clock

Put the three schedules side by side and each meal of the day points somewhere different. Hours below are as published by each restaurant or reported in local coverage, and they can change, so a quick check before you head out is worth it.

The table shows the October change at a glance: after 2 p.m., every option is on Park Road or Lorton, and before 11 a.m., the only one is on Broadway.

The next date on the downtown calendar

The new dinner hours get their first big holiday crowd on Friday, December 4, at Winterfest in Burlingame. Downtown Burlingame lists the event from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., with a little train ride around Burlingame Avenue and hot chocolate after the traditional tree lighting.

The event ends at 7:30, which leaves time for dinner afterward. That's roughly two and a half hours before The Old Post Office's 10 p.m. close and about an hour and a half before Marufuku stops serving at 9. If you want a dining-room table at the post office that night, it takes reservations. The bar does not.

Restaurant openings and changes like these also shape how a block feels day to day, which is something we pay attention to when helping clients compare streets across the Peninsula. If you'd like to talk through how Burlingame's downtown and Broadway corridors fit your plans, Daniel Choi is happy to walk through it with you. Schedule a free consultation.