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Cook’s Seafood in Pleasanton abruptly closed for good Wednesday, according to a notice posted on the restaurant’s front door. The company’s flagship location in Menlo Park also closed the same day.
“We are sad to inform you that after 98 years, we are closing all locations effective October 28, 2026,” the message reads. “As you know, this year has been very difficult for restaurants. Our team thanks you for all your years of visiting us, and we’ll miss you.”
Two calls placed to the Pleasanton restaurant Thursday afternoon were sent to voicemail. The websites for both the Pleasanton and Menlo Park locations were still up as of Thursday afternoon, and neither mentioned the closure.
The Pleasanton location shuttered just over a year after its long-awaited opening.
Cook’s Seafood had been teasing the Pleasanton location since 2017, when it first filed permits with the city. That was followed by nearly eight years of no activity until the company reapplied for similar permits
However, the storefront remained closed until the company reapplied for similar permits and finally opened the restaurant in May 2025. Chef Moises Bucio attributed the delay to personnel changes at the Menlo Park restaurant, the COVID-19 pandemic and his own medical issues.
Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce CEO Yianna Theodorou told the Weekly that while the seafood restaurant never joined the chamber — despite the chamber reaching out multiple times — she was sad to hear that the restaurant had closed, considering how much public scrutiny the company went through after taking nearly 10 years to open its doors.
“It really is a shame that that location is closed now after all that,” Theodorou said.
It appears even the restaurant’s employees were caught off guard with the news of the closure. One Menlo Park employee told the Weekly’s sister publication, the Almanac, that he received a text at 3 a.m. Thursday from the company’s current owner, Roy Crumrine Jr., telling the employee not to come into work later that morning because the Menlo Park and Pleasanton locations had closed permanently the day before.
The flagship location in the peninsula first opened its doors in 1928.
