Stevens Creek Boulevard Is Filling Its Empty Storefronts, and Hashi Market Is Only the Loudest Arrival

"Fridays, which used to be our No. 1 day, are now like a ghost town." That's how Mistie Boulton, CEO and co-founder of Oren's Hummus, explained the closing of the chain's Cupertino location to J. The Jewish News of Northern California. She said the closing was planned well in advance. It followed Apple's post-pandemic decision to let employees work from home several days a week, and the timing matched the end of a 10-year lease.

The restaurant at 19419 Stevens Creek Blvd. served its last meal on Friday, September 11. Four weeks later, hundreds of people lined up farther down the same boulevard for a Japanese grocery store. Over this fall, Stevens Creek Boulevard has been filling spaces that sat empty for years. The two new food businesses stay open every day into the evening, and the grocery store drew shoppers from well beyond Cupertino. The one business that left had been built around the weekday lunch crowd.

The Lunch Rush Stopped Showing Up

Oren's Hummus opened in Cupertino a decade ago. Boulton told J. Weekly it "was voted No. 1 restaurant in Silicon Valley when we opened." The chain isn't leaving the area. According to WhatNow, its Los Gatos, Mountain View, Palo Alto and San Francisco locations are still open, and many Cupertino staff members are moving to other Bay Area locations.

Friday had been the restaurant's best day. That kind of trade relies on people who are already nearby on a workday and need a quick lunch. When fewer people come in at the end of the week, a restaurant built on that rhythm has trouble making up the difference.

No new tenant has been announced for 19419 Stevens Creek.

Four Addresses, Four Different Schedules

Compare this fall's arrivals with the space that emptied, and the pattern shows up in their schedules. Hours and dates below come from the City of Cupertino's September 30 City Manager's Newsletter, local news coverage and Hashi Market's own listing as reported by SFGATE.

The two food businesses in the table are open every day of the week and well into the evening. Hashi Market stays open until 11 p.m. Jingege & YaoYao stays open until 9:30 p.m. Neither depends on a Friday lunch to carry its week.

A Grocery Store That Drew a Line Before Opening

The Hashi Market opening is the biggest piece of this, so the details are worth having. According to the Mercury News, the New York-based chain picked Cupertino for its first West Coast store, a 20,000-square-foot space in Crossroads Center at Stevens Creek Boulevard and South De Anza Boulevard. The city notes the space had been empty since 2023, when Sprouts left.

The Mercury News described the store as a cross between a supermarket and a mini department store. That fits Hashi's own description of its stock, which includes imported Japanese snacks, produce, seafood, Wagyu and other meats, sushi, prepared foods, beauty and skincare products, and kitchen goods. The store also offers catering. On opening day, shoppers found bento boxes, fruit-shaped ice cream, onigiri, Hello Kitty plush toys and a bluefin tuna being cut up in front of the crowd.

The Mercury News found a Sunnyvale shopper who had been in line since 8 a.m. after hearing about the store on TikTok. It also talked to a Los Gatos shopper and a visitor from Grass Valley, about three hours away, who said there was "nothing like this" closer than Sacramento. SFGATE and USA Today both covered the opening. The city's own news release noted that coverage and included Mayor Kitty Moore's welcome to the new business.

Hashi also opened about a mile from an established Asian grocery. The Los Gatos shopper told the Mercury News that her usual stores are T&T in San Jose and the Ranch 99 about a mile from Hashi on South De Anza Boulevard. Her view of the newcomer was practical: "I guess more competition means better prices." With hours running until 11 p.m. every night, Hashi's schedule covers weekends and weeknights alike, well beyond the Friday lunch hour that once carried Oren's.

The Spaces That Sat Empty Longest

Hashi's space was empty for about three years. Preferred Bank's space was empty longer. The bank's new Silicon Valley Regional Office at 20803 Stevens Creek moved into a 3,280-square-foot former Vitamin Shoppe that had been vacant since 2019, according to the city newsletter. It keeps standard banking hours, Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. So not every new arrival runs on a seven-day schedule. What ties this group together is that several storefronts on the boulevard went years without a tenant and are now filled.

Jingege & YaoYao opened at Marketplace in late August in a 4,370-square-foot space. It serves Chinese food and is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. That's a large dining room on a corridor where a 10-year lunch spot just closed, and its hours cover dinner every night of the week.

The city has also been promoting the street's restaurants directly. Cupertino's second annual Restaurant Week ran October 5 through 11, with participating restaurants offering special menus and promotions. Hashi's grand opening fell on the Friday of that week.

Still Waiting Behind the Paper

Two addresses on the boulevard are still unsettled at the end of October:

• 20488 Stevens Creek Blvd. Specialty's Café & Bakery is planned for the former Le Boulanger space, about 6,550 square feet. The city reports that plans for tenant improvements have been submitted. No opening date has been announced.
• 19419 Stevens Creek Blvd. The former Oren's Hummus space has no announced replacement.

Specialty's will be the next test of the pattern. A bakery-café in a space that size could serve morning commuters, weekend families or both. Its hours, once posted, will show which crowd it's betting on.

For now, the largest new arrival on Stevens Creek is a 20,000-square-foot grocery store in a former Sprouts, open every day from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

At Milestone Realty, we follow which Cupertino storefronts are filling and which are still empty because those changes shape what daily life near Stevens Creek looks like. If you'd like to talk about how these shifts might affect a Cupertino home you own or are considering, schedule a consultation with our team or request a free home valuation.