Lutticken's Deli and After 5, the West Menlo Park sandwich shop and evening wine bar that has anchored the corner of Alameda de las Pulgas and Gordon Avenue since 1981, will close for good on September 30. All three of its Bay Area locations are shutting down at once, ending a 45-year run that survived recessions, a pandemic and decades of shifting Peninsula lunch habits.
General manager Judy Congdon, who has worked at Lutticken's since it opened in 1981, confirmed the closure to the New York Post, which cited an earlier report from the Mercury News. “Everything's going to be shut down September 30,” Congdon said. The flagship deli sits at 3535 Alameda de las Pulgas in West Menlo Park, a corner that founder Bob Lutticken has run alongside Congdon for the deli's entire history, according to InMenlo.
A Menu And A Presidential Footnote
Lutticken's built its daytime reputation on coffee, sandwiches and Mexican food, including a Hawaiian sandwich with ham, Swiss cheese and pineapple salsa that runs around $13. The deli even drew a national political figure through its doors: Al Gore stopped by during his 2000 presidential campaign, a detail that has become part of local lore around the shop.
In the evenings, the space transforms into After 5, which serves beer and wine alongside weekly karaoke nights and live music. That reinvention dates back to August 2011, when Bob Lutticken renovated the space in partnership with building owner Gary Souza after 30 years as a straightforward daytime sandwich shop, introducing small plates and drinks to offset shrinking lunchtime margins, according to InMenlo's original coverage of the redesign. Until the closure was announced, the venue also hosted monthly open mic nights on the first Saturday of each month, a tradition run in coordination with local bandleader TJ, per the Bay Area Open Mic Calendar.
Community Ties And State Recognition
The deli's local goodwill extended well beyond its dining room. In April 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lutticken's organized community fundraising campaigns to deliver prepared food to unhoused and vulnerable Peninsula residents, according to a GoFundMe campaign from that period. That track record of giving — including regular food donations to Street Life Ministries, the St. Francis Center and the Maple Street Shelter — was cited when California State Senator Josh Becker presented Lutticken's with the Senate District 13 Small Business of the Year award in 2024, an honor InMenlo detailed in its coverage of the ceremony.
Despite that recognition, Congdon said the deli did not financially recover from the pandemic. “It's very sad,” she told the New York Post. The closure leaves a gap in a stretch of Alameda de las Pulgas that forms part of a historic West Menlo Park commercial cluster also home to long-running Peninsula staples like the Dutch Goose pub, which opened in 1966, and Flea Street Cafe, according to a Redfin analysis of the neighborhood.
Part Of A Wider Peninsula Pattern
Lutticken's exit fits a broader pattern of pressure on daytime food service tied to remote and hybrid work. U.S. Chamber of Commerce data from June 2024 found that 52% of remote-capable U.S. workers are now in hybrid roles, and that fast-casual lunch sales have dropped from an estimated 85% pre-pandemic share to 65%, a shift documented on the Chamber's CO— platform. Fewer office workers commuting into corridors like Sand Hill Road means fewer lunch customers for delis built around that traffic.
The strain shows up in local commercial real estate too. Downtown Menlo Park recorded a retail storefront vacancy rate of roughly 17% in mid-2025, with city officials identifying 17 vacant ground-floor storefronts, prompting the Menlo Park City Council to reform zoning rules in June 2026 to allow non-retail businesses on ground floors, according to Reimagine Menlo Park. Similar closures have rippled across San Mateo County, including the September 2025 shutdown of San Mateo's Wursthall beer hall after seven years, which its owners attributed to reduced foot traffic and lower alcohol consumption, as reported by writer Lana Morin.
The trend isn't confined to the Peninsula. In Oakland, the Home of Chicken and Waffles closed its location in late August, and Hank & Frank Bicycles shut down that same month after 101 years in business, according to the Post's report. For now, Lutticken's regulars have until September 30 to order one more Hawaiian sandwich or catch a last karaoke night before the lights go out on a 45-year Menlo Park institution.
