Faux Stone for Cafe Delle Stelle Facelift? Other Cited Successes of Downtown Restaurant Renovation

The Design Review Commission will once again consider a proposal to upgrade the historic building housing the Caffe Delle Stelle Italian restaurant, but city planners staff say they are still not sold on all the aesthetic features of the project.

"Staff supports the concept of property improvements at ... the site, but believes the current design proposal's use of stucco, foam trim and faux-stone undermines the building's historical qualities," says a report in advance of the Wednesday's meeting.

Don Strouzas, the owner of the pink 4,387-square-foot building at North Main Street and Lincoln Avenue, would like to modernize its facade. The building, with its distinctive second-floor balcony, first went up in 1940, was named after one of the original owners and, in that first decade, housed the Nut Bowl Fountain, one of downtown Walnut Creek's soda and ice cream shops. The ground floor later held the Melting Pot fondue restaurant, and is now occupied by Caffe Delle Stelle, a casual Italian eatery. 

In April, the owner first proposed fixing up the facade, transforming it from a style known as"1930s artistic front commercial" to a look that is more "upscale" and Mediterranean and Tuscan.

The city's General Plan calls for a traditional downtown that retains small-scale buildings with new construction that is compatible with the existing area. The General Plan also seeks to foster the preservation and restoration of historically significant structures and sites. 

City planners view the Sturm building and its pre-World War II "artistic" front as unique to downtown. Planners say they don't have a problem with upgrading the building and acknowledge that the owner and architect have already incorporated suggestions made by Design Review commissioners.

But planners would like commissioners to direct the owner and his architect to revise their plans some more so that exterior and materials "preserve the building's potentially historic character and architectural elements." 

Planners say that recent renovations of 1515 Restaurant and Lounge and Vesu restaurant represent enhancements to the downtown area, "however in these instances their exterior architectural elements that were present prior to the renovation were not of the same quality or character as the building.

According to planners, a true "showcase" of the ability to enhance and maintain a historic site is the renovation of the former Lawrence meat market, a 100-year-old brick storefront, into Sasa Walnut Creek.