Walnut Creek, California – Original Joes in Walnut Creek has been closed for over a month. Now, though, rumor has it the restaurant is about to reopen–and we have a potential date. Update: It’s confirmed!
When Original Joe’s restaurant in Walnut Creek, California originally opened, things went extremely well.
The popular Italian restaurant – which has served classic Italian dishes in San Francisco and Daly City for decades – generated a lot of buzz when it said it would soon open a restaurant in the former Stanford’s space in Walnut Creek.
That opening took a long time. Original Joe’s completely gutted and rebuilt the Stanford’s location, creating a newly renovated outdoor patio, a beautiful interior with a big bar, private rooms for entertaining, and a prominent sign on the outside of the store.
The construction process stretched on for months longer than originally planned. When the restaurant finally did open on August 14, Walnut Creek declared the day “Original Joe’s Day,” and there was a massive ceremony with local officials and a ribbon-cutting.
It immediately became almost impossible to get a reservation! We tried at the time, and Original Joe’s was booked solid for weeks.
We were extremely excited to go, and expecting to try out the restaurant’s iconic food and cocktails in late August.
Then, less than a week after reopening, Original Joe’s suffered a damaging fire in the early hours of the morning on August 18.
The Bay Area Telegraph spoke to a Con Fire public information officer at the time, who said that a wall had been damaged in the fire.
Everyone expected Original Joe’s to reopen soon, but as with the original construction, the reopening dragged.
I spoke to a source who told me that insurance issues and removal of a lingering smoke smell may have been responsible.
Now, it appears that Original Joe’s is finally about to reopen again.
One reader shared with us a picture from the nearby Lifetime gym’s window, showing servers practicing table settings and other techniques inside the restaurant.
Another reader also wrote in to say that they’d spoken to an employee at the store, and that they were conducting “mock service,” the final step before opening a restaurant.
The employee also reportedly told our reader that they had chosen a reopening date for the restaurant. That date was apparently October 1.
Update: The date is confirmed.
We had seen an October 3 date mentioned online. But looking at Original Joe’s Yelp, the site states that the restaurant is scheduled to reopen on October 1.
A spokesperson confirmed the date.
We said before: “That said, all signs point to the fact that Original Joe’s will reopen in early October, most likely this Wednesday the first.”
And, we were right!
