Zac's Bar & Grill in San Carlos: Inside the Reopening

"We love people. We love to engage with the community, and we help to give back to the community as well." That's how Zaki Massis described the business he and his wife, Btool Nazerial, opened on Sept. 1 at 1748 El Camino Real in San Carlos. The business is called Zac's Bar & Grill. Plenty of people in town will still know the address by its old name.

For roughly a decade and a half, this was The Office Bar & Grill. On big football weekends it drew crowds large enough for the local paper to count them. It closed on March 9, 2025, and Zac's opened in the same space nearly 18 months later. The new owners talk about filling it differently. Massis describes Zac's in terms of school fundraisers and trivia nights, and he doesn't lead with kickoff times. A room with about 190 seats is being pitched as a gathering place for San Carlos as much as for game day.

The Weekend 200 People Showed Up

The best record of what this room was comes from the San Mateo Daily Journal. Ahead of the NFC championship game between the 49ers and the New York Giants, the paper put together a list of places across the county to watch. It singled out The Office in San Carlos as "another great place and popular place to watch the game." It also reported that at least 200 people had turned out the weekend before and that the bar was planning a beer special for the championship Sunday.

The Office came from the same group behind 3 Pigs BBQ. The Daily Journal identified Aaron Boyle, Dave Parks and Steve Hicks as the owners who opened 3 Pigs and had also opened The Office, Rustic House and Mezzes. A restaurant group with several Peninsula concepts built a place that could handle a crowd, and on the Sundays that mattered most, the crowd came.

That history is why a reopening at this address means more than one new restaurant on El Camino. Zac's now seats about 190 people across the dining room and patio, roughly the size of the crowd the Daily Journal counted on that playoff weekend.

Nearly 18 Months With the Lights Off

The gap between the two businesses is easy to lay out.

1. March 9, 2025. The Office Bar & Grill closes. Its owners' Instagram announcement blamed "rising costs and shifting business dynamics," according to the Peninsula Foodist newsletter.
2. Sept. 1, 2026. Zac's Bar & Grill opens in the former Office space.
3. Sept. 9, 2026. Palo Alto Online's Peninsula Foodist covers the opening.

The accounts of The Office's run don't quite agree. The 2025 newsletter says it was in business 15 years, while the 2026 opening story says 14. Either way, the run was long, and almost 18 months passed between its last day and Zac's first.

The Patio Is the Larger Half

The detail from the opening coverage that tells you most about how the space works is the seat count. Zac's seats about 90 people inside and 100 on the outdoor patio, so more than half of its capacity is outdoors. The full bar runs 16 beers on tap, and they pour both inside and outside. Patio guests don't have to walk in to the bar for a pint.

Massis talks about the setting the way you'd expect from someone who chose it. "I love this area, I love the neighborhood, the weather is amazing, people are so friendly, people are so welcoming," he told the Peninsula Foodist. A patio with 100 seats only works where the weather lets people sit outside, and for October afternoons in San Carlos, he's betting it will.

What It Costs to Settle In for an Afternoon

The menu covers casual bar bites, burgers, sandwiches, and some heartier plates like steak and pasta. Here are the prices from the opening coverage.

At these prices a draft runs about half the cost of a cocktail, which suits a long game-day stretch. Splitting the $26 sampler costs a group less per person than ordering appetizers one at a time.

Massis has his own favorites. Among the appetizers he likes the potato skins, loaded with melted cheese, bacon, sour cream and green onions, and the calamari fritti with tartar sauce. His pick from the sandwiches is the Zac's Burger, a brisket and Angus beef patty with American cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, pickles, red onions and aioli on a brioche bun. He also recommends the Philly cheesesteak, made with thinly shaved rib-eye, sautéed bell peppers and onion, and melted provolone on a sweet roll. The cocktail list includes a take on the cosmopolitan, an espresso martini with chocolate bitters, and a prickly pear margarita.

A Restaurant Operator's Room

The owners come from different backgrounds than the restaurant group that built The Office. Massis lives in Belmont and has been in the Bay Area for 14 years. He was business operations manager at Waterfront Restaurant in Foster City. "My wife and I were always interested in opening a business, and we love food," he said, as quoted in the Peninsula Foodist.

That background shows in the hours. Zac's opens daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Those are a grill's hours, starting at lunch and ending after dinner, and they cover weekend afternoons and early evenings. Anyone planning around a late kickoff should check the posted closing time first.

Plans So Far, Not a Schedule

Massis has said he hopes to use Zac's to raise money for school programs, host trivia nights, and eventually add karaoke. The opening coverage separates the two clearly.

• In place at opening: daily hours of 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., the full bar with 16 taps, about 190 seats split between the dining room and the patio, and the menu and prices above.
• Described as plans: school-program fundraisers, trivia nights, and karaoke "eventually."

The fundraiser idea is the one that would change how the room gets used. When The Office made the news, it was for a crowd watching a game. A space that seats 90 indoors and 100 outside is also big enough for a school group's fundraiser night, a weeknight trivia league, or a team dinner after a youth game. Those are the uses Massis named. The most direct way to follow which of them happen first is the bar's Instagram account, @zacsbarandgrill, which the opening coverage lists as its main channel.

Getting There

Zac's sits at 1748 El Camino Real, in the same building The Office used. The owners and the menu are new. If you moved to San Carlos after March 2025, this is the first time the address has been open since you arrived. The Peninsula Foodist's opening story has photos of the interior, the cocktails and the owners.

The patio holds 100 people, the taps run outside as well as in, and the kitchen closes its day at 9 p.m.

At the Anagnostou Team, we track businesses like this one along the El Camino corridor because they shape how a block feels to the people who live near it. If you own a home within walking distance of 1748 El Camino Real and want to know how your property stands this fall, request a home valuation and we'll put together a careful, discreet assessment.