The Story of Zott's Revival Keeps Coming Back to the Parking Lot

One regular at Rossotti's Alpine Inn skips the parking lot altogether. Lori Hunter told SFGATE in August 2025 that a woman rides over on her horse at least once a week, ties it at the hitching rail and orders an It's-It and french fries. The rails, the bike racks and the parking attendants all exist for one reason. More people want to eat at Zott's than its land can park.

Christ Church Portola Valley booked Lori and Deke Hunter for its Voices in the Valley series on November 18, under the title "Our Zott's Story," billed as a look behind the scenes from "the local couple who brought it back to life." Much of that story is about restoration. It is also about cars, and the newest part is still in progress at Town Hall.

What the Hunters bought in 2018

The building at 3915 Alpine Road is California Historical Landmark No. 825, listed by the California Office of Historic Preservation as Casa de Tableta. It dates to the 1850s and was a gambling retreat and meeting place before it became a roadhouse and saloon. The "Zott's" nickname comes from Enrico Rossotti's post-Prohibition E. Rossotti Beer Garden. Don Horther and John and Molly Alexander ran it as the Alpine Inn Beer Garden starting in 1956. Its place in tech history comes from August 1976, when an SRI International crew sent an electronic transmission from a picnic table in the beer garden. A plaque marks the spot. The Computer History Museum describes the 1976 test as a two-network step. It gives the title of first full transmission under the later internet standard to a test on November 22, 1977.

The Almanac reported in February 2019 that the Hunters had bought the property the previous December. The remodeling plans on file at Town Hall listed repairs for dry rot in the bar, kitchen, floors and walls, new ramps, handrails and automatic doors, and commercial-grade equipment in place of the old residential fryer, range and refrigerators. Woodside architect Stevan Patrick oversaw the work. According to SFGATE, three other Portola Valley residents joined the Hunters as owners. Greg St. Claire of Avenir Restaurant Group, which runs Town in San Carlos, Milagros in Redwood City and Nola in Palo Alto, signed on as operating partner.

Tony Curci of Midglen Studio Associates in Woodside did the construction. Lori Hunter glazed the original wood ceiling herself to match its red color. The old picnic tables, carved with generations of names, became the backs of the tavern booths. The tables inside were built from redwood that once formed a water tank on Neil Young's Woodside ranch. The Inn reopened in August 2019.

A target of $6 million, and twice that in practice

SFGATE reported that the reopening plan pushed back the kitchen overhaul. To reach St. Claire's target of $6 million in annual revenue, the owners bought a pizza truck and a smoker so the tiny kitchen wasn't doing all the work. SFGATE reported in August 2025 that the Inn had brought in $12 million the previous year, twice that target. Hunter and St. Claire told SFGATE the money went back into the property. That included the expanded kitchen, a new power pole on Alpine Road and new bathrooms designed by Hunter.

Here is the volume SFGATE reported for the first half of 2025.

The recently expanded kitchen SFGATE described in August 2025 gained about 400 square feet, along with new grills, ovens and fryers. Executive chef and general manager Sean Agoliati said it produced "better, hotter, faster food." That summer, a red 1972 Argosy trailer called the Wunder Bar began serving oysters, ceviche and strawberry frosé on weekends in an area known as Zott's Bullpen. Its purpose was to give people something to do while they waited for a table. Waits of more than an hour were common enough that SFGATE mentioned them.

All of these upgrades increased how many people the restaurant could serve. None of them added parking.

Where the cars have gone since the reopening

The Alpine Inn sits on a 1.5-acre site with about 100 parking spaces. At about 1,000 tickets a day, the lot runs out of room long before the beer garden does. The town's response has come in stages.

1. Golden Oak Drive, 2021. Neighbors across Alpine Road first raised safety concerns about Inn customers parking on their street in 2021, according to The Almanac. The street now has a Town "No Parking" sign.
2. Arastradero Road and Ford Field, 2023. In August 2023, The Almanac counted a little over 70 cars along Arastradero Road just before Alpine Road. The Woodside Fire Protection District's fire marshal had received complaints about drivers parking past the white line. To free up spaces at the restaurant, the Inn began moving employees to the Ford Field lot, about three-quarters of a mile away, and shuttling them back. The Town was then reviewing an application to rent those spaces for $100 a day.
3. Attendants and carpools, 2025. By August 2025, SFGATE described attendants on duty, spaces reserved for cars with four or more people, staff shuttled from off-site lots the restaurant pays for, and a two-hour table limit when it gets busy. "Our biggest problem is parking," Lori Hunter told the paper.
4. The Town lot next door, 2026. The Town Council is negotiating a lease of its own parking lot at 3919 Alpine Road with the Inn's operating partner.

The lot at 3919 Alpine Road

The Town-owned parcel next to the Inn is San Mateo County APN 079-123-120. It sits beside Rossotti Field, a natural-turf, full-size soccer field used for youth and adult league practices and games. The field borders Los Trancos Creek and the Alpine Trail.

The Council took up the lot in closed session at its September 9 and October 28 meetings. Both agendas list Town Manager Darcy Smith as the Town's negotiator and Greg St. Claire of Avenir Restaurant Group as the other party. The subject is "price and terms of payment regarding a lease for parking lot." The Town Manager's after-action report for October 28 says nothing was reported out of the session.

Sports users have a stake in this lot too. At a January 2026 meeting, Parks & Recreation Committee members said they were concerned that a lease or sale could affect parking for soccer and Little League. They asked staff to work with the Town Manager to protect field users' parking, according to a Citizen Portal summary of that meeting. The same stretch of Alpine Road also hosts the town's largest family event. This year's Zotts to Tots run and ride started at the Inn on September 19 and closed Alpine and Portola Roads between the Inn and Town Center for about two hours that morning. The Town reported a record 600-plus runners and bikers.

The Council's other business on Alpine Road ties back to the same traffic. In its October 28 summary, the Town noted it was continuing to work with Caltrans on safety along the Alpine Road and Highway 84 corridor. Any change to how the Inn's customers park will affect how many cars sit on those road shoulders.

Going to Zott's this holiday season

The Alpine Inn's website lists these hours: closed Monday; Tuesday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. It closes on Thanksgiving, which falls on November 26 this year, and on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The Inn doesn't take reservations or buyouts. It isn't booking live entertainment at the moment.

The Inn's FAQ asks guests to carpool or use rideshare and to keep public roads clear. It warns that cars parked over the white line on the roadside may be ticketed or towed. In 2025, Hunter told SFGATE that the tavern, which now has air conditioning, is usually less crowded than the beer garden when there's a wait outside. Guests seat themselves in a booth, at the communal table or at the counter.

The next public step on the lease will come from the Town Council. Its agendas and the Town Manager's after-action reports are posted on portolavalley.net.

At The Balakrishnan Group, we follow the Town's decisions about its own land along Alpine Road because they shape everyday life in Portola Valley as much as any sale does. If you own near the Alpine Road corridor and want to talk about what changes there mean for your property, Request a Confidential Consultation.