Photograph by Dai Sugano
Zee Ouellette (left) and Pam Allison enjoy a quick lunch in the new Bike Cafe at Summit Bikes in Los Gatos.
Bike Cafe offers a solution for a quick meal on the go
By Suzanne Cristallo
For cyclists needing a Bottom Bracket or a Soft Tail, the just-opened Bike Cafe in Los Gatos is the best bet. The cafe is a part of Summit Bicycles--a cyclist's haven that now occupies the old Richard's natural foods store on E. Main Street.
While the smell of rubber and a maze of suspended bicycles occupy one side of the store, the food side serves healthful concoctions with catchy names that appeal to the retiring Baby Boomers making their way to the store with a fit new life on a sporty bicycle.
For those who speak cycle-ese, a Bottom Bracket is a necessary part of a bike frame indeed, but it has now been given new meaning--a bagel sandwich of cream cheese, smoked salmon and red onion. The same goes for the Chain Whip--hummus, cucumber, mushrooms, carrots, red onion, sprouts and tomatoes; the Suspension--feta cheese, cucumber, olives and tomato; and the Gyro, the Schwinn, the Off-Road and the Tour de Garlic.
"We sat around and thought the names up one night," says Leslie Austere, part of the core group behind Bike Cafe and Summit Bicycles. The others are his wife Suzanne, and Bob Weger and his wife Nicole of Half Moon Bay. Austere's brother, Lyn, manages the place.
The partners first opened their bicycle shop in town in 1994 on S. Santa Cruz Avenue. They bought Richard's a year and a half ago when it became vacant. They hoped to make an efficient move in short order to the new location just four blocks away. Although the actual remodeling took only six months, it took a year to find their way unaided by the town through a maze of requirements for a new license, permits and inspections, all the while paying on both properties.
"No one ever tells you what to do if you're wrong. You're just sent back to find your way on your own," Austere reflects. "If I treated my customers that way, I'd be out of business."
Although Austere vows he never again will bother to deal directly with the town, he views the payoff as being able to do business where people have a sense of community, be near popular mountain trails and deal with customers who range from tots looking for trikes to octogenarians seeking 27-speed road bikes.
Austere, 40, rides up to 200 miles a week on the western face of the Santa Cruz Mountains, after dividing time between the new store and another he owns in Berkeley and his home in Burlingame. While bicycles have been his life for the past 10 years, he spent the previous 10 as wine manager for Shadowbrook Restaurant in Capitola, where he also ran the staff training program.
The cafe is done in chic colors of chartreuse and burnt cinnamon selected by Suzanne Austere, a photo stylist. Counters are a textured, glossy black concrete. Techno and acid jazz play in the background. Besides the bagels, there are soups, salads, smoothies and espresso.
"All our cream cheese is made fresh here, and it'll blow you away!" boasts barista Robbie Ross of Los Gatos, who trained with a national bagel chain. His co-staffer David Lee of Campbell also doubles as a bike mechanic. "We like the family feel here," Ross says.
Bike Cafe, 111 E. Main St., Los Gatos. Open daily 8 a.m.-5 p.m. 399-9363.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
