Two Palo Alto restaurants are refreshing their dining experiences in different ways this fall. Horsefeather, the craft cocktail bar and New American restaurant at Town & Country Village, is replacing its menu with a new lineup. On California Avenue, Sekoya has updated part of its menu and renovated its dining room while bringing in a new head chef. Both changes involve chefs with Top Chef credentials.
Different commercial settings
Town & Country Village describes itself as home to more than 70 shops, restaurants and services, according to Town & Country Village. That provides context for Horsefeather’s shopping-center location alongside Sekoya’s California Avenue address; the verified information here does not establish city-led public-realm changes on California Avenue.
At Horsefeather, chef Casey Thompson curated an entirely new menu, according to Palo Alto Online. Thompson placed runner-up on Top Chef: Miami and is described as a four-time Michelin Bib Gourmand chef. The restaurant will replace its current offerings with Thompson's à la carte menu; the outlet notes that the San Francisco location's menu will remain the same.
A complete menu reset at Horsefeather
The replacement menu takes a playful, bar-food approach, drawing on Asian flavors and techniques, the outlet reports. The lineup ranges from green chile queso with salsa and warm tortilla chips to tater tots dressed with kewpie mayo, bacon, tonkatsu sauce, charred scallion and bonito. Other offerings include a fried fish sandwich with trout roe tartar sauce, miso yaki skirt steak with crispy potato strings and yuzu-kosho butter, and Southern-fried wings with hot chicken butter and do chua.
Thompson said she enjoys playful menus and likes being cheeky, according to the report. Horsefeather is at 855 El Camino Real, Suite 151. The restaurant debuted in San Francisco in 2016 and expanded to Palo Alto in 2025; it also plans limited-time preview prix-fixe dinners during the menu transition.
At Sekoya, a partial menu change comes with a room refresh
Sekoya's changes include a new head chef: Ray Saad, who previously worked at Michelin-starred Daniel in New York and appeared on season 9 of MBC's Top Chef, according to Palo Alto Online. Saad plans to make the food more seasonal and local, with Mediterranean influences informed by his Lebanese heritage.
Saad described cooking as a form of communication and said he tries to highlight ingredients without doing too much, the outlet reports. Around 30 percent of Sekoya's regular menu is new. The dining-room renovation also addressed acoustics and replaced low lounge-style seating and sofas with tables and chairs. Sekoya, a New American, California-fusion restaurant and bar, opened in 2023 under co-owners Steve and Sean Ugur.
A set-price early-evening option
Sekoya is introducing Amber Hour, a three-course dinner with dinner-sized portions priced at $59. It runs Monday through Thursday from 5 to 6 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. The menu is new apart from the returning butterscotch pudding, according to the outlet. Dishes include charred cabbage with house-smoked labneh, confit lemons, nuts and coriander oil; eggplant katsu with quinoa pomodoro, smoked eggplant puree, mint-yogurt and za'atar; and watermelon granita with strawberry sorbet, mint and lemon zest.
Steve Ugur, who gained experience butchering and dry-aging at Porterhouse, said many residents of Palo Alto, Portola Valley and Mountain View did not know Sekoya existed, the report states. He sold his portion of Pausa Bar & Cookery in May. The team now wants to make Sekoya more of a neighborhood spot for Palo Alto. Regular hours are Monday through Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m.
A separate Bay Area example comes from San Francisco: a January 2026 SFGATE report said former Top Chef contestant Melissa Perfit had taken over the kitchen at Equal Parts. That example offers a point of comparison, but does not by itself establish a broader regional trend.
