Familiar San Carlos dining spot to close after 34 years

For Depot Cafe, it’s all about family Familiar San Carlos dining spot to close after 34 years By Anna Schuessler Daily Journal staff Feb 2, 2018 Updated 2 hrs ago 3 Mary Noviscky, owner of San Carlos’ Depot Cafe, serves customers in the restaurant’s final days. Slated to close Feb. 18 after 34 years at its location at the San Carlos train station, the restaurant has suffered in recent months amid construction of a new transit center. Anna Schuessler/Daily Journal After 34 years hosting meetings between friends, family breakfasts, lunch breaks for nearby workers and even parties to mark the end of soccer season, San Carlos’ Depot Cafe owner Mary Noviscky is ready to hang up her apron. With her business situated in the city’s historic train station next to its Caltrain platform, Noviscky, a Redwood City resident, has become accustomed to mornings starting when she arrives at 5:15 a.m. to open the doors of her restaurant at 599 El Camino Real by 6 a.m. She’s learned customers’ names, remembered their breakfast and lunch orders and knows by heart the ebbs and flows of the seemingly endless stream of customers walking into her restaurant over the years. The Depot Cafe will be closing after 34 years at the historic San Carlos train station. Owner Mary Noviscky said her patrons have been hard pressed to find parking near her business as a new transit center has gone up adjacent to her business. So in the days since the Daily Journal reported she is closing her restaurant Feb. 18, she’s been navigating a range of emotions alongside her customers, from shared sadness to joy in the many memories they have shared. “It’s a hectic busy,” she said, adding that some customers have fought tears upon learning about her business’ closure. “It was very hard for me to make this decision and give up.” A self-described people person, Noviscky said the loyalty and support of her customers have sustained her in her 45-year career in the restaurant industry. But despite their kindness, recent changes to her business’ parking as a new transit center has gone up adjacent to the historic building in the past year are among the many challenges her business has struggled to overcome lately. Losing six of the 12 parking spots previously available to her patrons and asking them to walk a short distance from the new lot to her restaurant have proven to be a deterrent for many, especially those with disabilities or other health issues, said Noviscky. Aimed at providing commuter parking and designated drop-off zones for multiple modes of transportation, construction of the San Carlos Transit Center has been managed by SamTrans. The project has been in the works alongside a 202-apartment, eight-building project dubbed the San Carlos Transit Village for several years since the housing development was approved in 2013. Though SamTrans spokesman Dan Lieberman said previously the agency has worked to protect the business from the impact of construction by reducing rent and ensuring the restaurant had the closest available spots during construction, Noviscky said the reduction in rent from $2,600 to $2,500 did not sufficiently address the complications she’s faced as a result of the construction. She added that a seven-year stretch on a month-to-month lease hasn’t helped ease her concerns about the future of her business. Noviscky said selling the business to an interested buyer last year proved untenable when officials said the new owner would have to sign a month-to-month lease and would be first in line to be considered when the property goes to bid when construction is complete in some two years, giving them no guarantee they could still operate the business after construction. Lieberman said officials felt it was appropriate to keep the lease month-to-month until the end of construction so it could be renegotiated when all parties had a better understanding of the new normal and that whoever the new tenant is will have to respect the building’s status as a historical preservation site. Though Noviscky’s heartbreak in closing her business is still fresh, she has wondered what her and her family’s lives will be like once they don’t have the business they have poured hours into setting the structure of their days. Her daughters, Sepeedeh Noviscky-Williams and Setareh Noviscky, have worked at the restaurant since they were teenagers and her husband Mike Noviscky, a retired electrical engineer, has invested countless hours in the business as well. She said patrons have come to appreciate seeing familiar faces every time they come in and over the years have shared their lives with her family as well. “It’s a good feeling because people love to go to a family business,” she said. “We are always here. They see them really grow up.” Though San Carlos resident Sandy Hoffman could remember clearly when the restaurant opened and became a morning stop for her on her way to work, the trips she and her son Sean Hoffman made after Sunday mass with family or for end-of-year soccer parties with teammates are what stand out most. “Everyone knew the Depot Cafe,” said Sandy Hoffman. “There’s really no other place like this.” When Mary Noviscky came to the United States from Iran to pursue a master’s degree some 45 years ago, jumping into the restaurant business wasn’t exactly what she had in mind. She said she had spent just two months working at the Sky Kitchen Cafe at the San Carlos Airport when she learned the owners were looking to sell their business, an opportunity she and her brother took when they purchased the business in 1972. Some 10 years later, she opened the Depot Cafe, a venture that has kept her family busy even after they sold the airport cafe some seven years ago. “All of us worked seven days a week until now,” she said. Though Setareh Noviscky is pained to see a business her mother dedicated so much of her life come to a close the way it did, she said the prospect of her mother getting some time off brings her relief, noting she quit a corporate job to work with her mother four years ago. She said seeing new customers who had always been meaning to try the restaurant come in or those who hadn’t come by in the past few days has been heartwarming. “It’s bittersweet,” she said. “The sweetness is we have our entire community coming in.” Though Noviscky already has dedicating more time to her real estate business in sight once the restaurant closes, she’s also looking forward to spending more time with her family and her 92-year-old mother to cap off more than 45 years serving others. “I think it’s time for retirement,” she said. anna@smdailyjournal.com (650) 344-5200 ext. 102