A familiar Los Gatos dining location is soon to have a new tenant: Gardenia, a new coffeehouse and fine dining restaurant that will offer premium-quality coffee from around the world and French-Asian cuisine.
Carol Wang, a newly minted Los Gatos resident and one of Gardenia’s owners, said she has wanted to start up a coffeehouse for several years now, but when the lease at 115 N. Santa Cruz Ave. opened up last year, she knew it was the right place to execute her vision. The historic Victorian mansion was most recently home to The Palms, and prior to that to Palacio, Trillium and The Chart House.
“With this beautiful, historical, Victorian-style building, no one could resist it,” Wang said.
The latest iteration will have its soft opening on July 27, and official opening on Aug 2.
Wang recently moved to Los Gatos from Danville. Before that, she worked as an internal physician in China. Since coming to the United States, Wang said, she had focused on raising her kids, but she identifies as a “foodie” and came to enjoy the culture surrounding coffee and coffeehouses about five years ago.
Wang said she plans for Gardenia to specialize in high-quality coffee, offering a full coffee menu, as well as brunch and happy hour, in the initial weeks after opening, then adding a dinner menu by September or October, though they have yet to publish the menu.
The French-Asian fusion cuisine, she said, was inspired by executive chef David Intonato’s background and Wang’s personal tastes, as well as the high concentration of Asian people in the Bay Area and the South Bay.
“I was raised in China so I have that Asian background, and I always loved French food as well,” she said.
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Wang plans to apply this standard of excellence to all aspects of Gardenia – with 2022 World Barista Champion Morgan Eckroth, 2024 National Brewer’s Cup champion Weihong Zhang and latte art champion Andrew Choi all involved.
“With this amazing team we will offer a really unique coffee experience to the community,” she said.
The name Gardenia, Wang said, is inspired partially by the elegance of the flower, which she hopes to emulate at the shop, and partially from a trip to coffee farms in Panama, where she discovered that the coffee plant shares a similar scent to the fragrant Gardenia.
“Gardenia Los Gatos will not only introduce the best coffee to customers, to the public, (but) also let them know there’s a beautiful elegant flower: gardenia,” Wang said.
Wang is envisioning Gardenia to be a gathering space for members of the Los Gatos community, not just to eat but also for social occasions and corporate meetings.
“We’d love the community to come here, and we also support the community as well,” she said.
Gardenia will be open for coffee seven days a week from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. from Tuesday to Sunday. Happy hour will be from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. starting Aug. 6 from Tuesday to Sunday, and the times will switch to 3:30 to 5:30 once the restaurant opens for dinner this fall.
Mayor Mary Badame will be present at Gardenia’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, Aug. 2 from 5 to 6 p.m.. Visit gardenialosgatos.com for more information.
