For two years, the vacant Rite Aid on Castro Valley Boulevard was the kind of empty storefront that generates its own folklore. Neighbors guessed a Sprouts might move in. Someone heard it would become a car wash. Another rumor had it slated for a furniture and appliance store. None of that happened. What actually opened in that building last October is harder to believe than any of the rumors: a 28,000-square-foot Cantonese banquet hall that its owners describe as the largest Cantonese restaurant in the United States.
That single fact says more about what is happening on the boulevard right now than any list of new coffee shops could. Castro Valley's main commercial strip is not just adding restaurants. It is absorbing a genuinely oversized anchor, at the same moment its oldest civic tradition just proved the street works as a place to walk, not just drive through.
Two Years of Guessing, One Very Large Answer
The Rite Aid at this location closed in August 2023, and the speculation about what would replace it ran for nearly two full years. It took until August 2024 for Alameda County Public Works to approve a restaurant and grocery store project on the site, submitted by Castro Valley resident Ming Y Li and endorsed by the Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council. The result, HL Peninsula, had its grand opening in October 2025, sitting next door to the new Mei Mei Market.
The numbers are worth putting side by side with what else exists in the region, because a big restaurant is not news on its own. This one is unusual for how big.
| Then (2023-2024) | Now (2025-2026) | |
|---|---|---|
| Building status | Vacant Rite Aid, closed August 2023 | HL Peninsula Restaurant, opened October 2025 |
| Community speculation | Sprouts, a car wash, a furniture store | A 28,000 sq ft Cantonese banquet hall |
| Main dining room seating | 0 | More than 800 guests |
| Private rooms | 0 | 9 VIP rooms, up to 50 guests each |
| Total capacity, per the Castro Valley Forum's account | 0 | Roughly 1,250 guests across the main room and all nine VIP rooms |
| Regional comparison | — | Nearly double the seating of HL Peninsula's Milpitas location, previously the chain's largest at about 700 guests |
HL Peninsula is the company's fifth Bay Area location, and by its own description, the flagship. The Castro Valley Forum's coverage of the opening noted that a restaurant in Saugus, Massachusetts, has claimed a similar superlative with roughly 1,200 seats, which puts the Castro Valley Boulevard location in rare company for the entire country, not just the East Bay.
That is the part locals talking about "the new dim sum place" tend to undersell. This is not a neighborhood restaurant that happens to be popular. It is a building sized for regional draw, sitting on a boulevard most people still think of as a drive-through corridor for errands.
The Rotary Already Proved the Boulevard Works as a Walk
Two blocks and one week away from that dim sum hall, the Rotary Club of Castro Valley ran its annual Taste of Castro Valley on Wednesday, August 12, from 5 to 8 p.m. This year's version featured more than 30 restaurants, caterers, and local businesses, a noticeable jump from the 25-plus that participated in past years. Participants checked in at the Philz Coffee plaza, picked up a tasting lanyard, and walked the boulevard sampling bites from named local spots including Urban Matcha, Pour House, Beard Papa's, Slice House, and Canyons Barbecue.
What makes the event a genuine test of the street, rather than just a nice evening, is the traffic detail: Castro Valley Boulevard stays open during Taste of Castro Valley. There is no road closure. The walk happens on the sidewalks, alongside normal car traffic, which means the event only works if the boulevard is actually pleasant to stroll while cars are still moving past. Only 700 tickets go on sale each year, and they tend to sell out early.
The Rotary's own framing of the event, in a statement ahead of this year's edition, gets at exactly what the HL Peninsula opening reinforces. As Castro Valley welcomes new restaurants and culinary entrepreneurs, the club said, the event showcases
"the diversity and creativity that define the community's evolving food culture."
Read that next to the Rite Aid story and the pattern gets clearer. A legacy civic institution built around walking the boulevard just posted its biggest lineup yet, in the same season a former drugstore became a destination sized to pull people in from outside town entirely. Neither of those things is a coincidence of timing. They are the same boulevard becoming a different kind of place.
What Ties It Together on an Ordinary Saturday
None of this replaces the boulevard's steadiest fixture, which has nothing to do with a grand opening or a once-a-year ticketed event. The Castro Valley Farmers' Market runs every Saturday, year-round, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Castro Valley BART Station parking lot, at Redwood Road and Norbridge Avenue. It accepts EBT, WIC, and Market Match, and EBT customers can currently get a dollar-for-dollar match up to $15 to spend on fruits and vegetables.
That market predates both the Taste of Castro Valley expansion and the HL Peninsula opening by years. What is new is that a Saturday morning at the market, a Wednesday evening tasting the boulevard, and a weeknight dinner at the country's largest Cantonese restaurant are all now realistic options within the same few blocks. A few years ago, only one of those three existed.
The Other Side of Town Has Its Own August Catch
While downtown gets busier, the recreational side of Castro Valley has a quieter, less-advertised change that matters if you hike or bike at Lake Chabot. The East Bay Regional Park District has closed the Goldenrod Trail at Anthony Chabot Regional Park, the stretch between Jackson Grade at the south and its intersection with Jalquin Trail at the north, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for fuels reduction work running from May 18 through November 20, 2026.
That closure covers the entire high season for trail use in Castro Valley, and it is easy to miss if you are not checking the park district's site before a hike. A few other details worth knowing if Lake Chabot is part of your regular routine:
- Lake Chabot itself offers more than 20 miles of hiking trails, which connect to another 70 miles in the adjoining Anthony Chabot Regional Park, so the Goldenrod closure affects only a slice of a much larger network.
- The paved West Shore and East Shore trails, a combined 3.52 miles, remain open and are not affected by the closure.
- Anyone launching a kayak or canoe needs a mussel inspection, done at the Lake Chabot Marina and Cafe for a $5 fee.
- Gate hours run 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. from May through Labor Day, the longest window of the year.
If you already have a favorite loop out there, it is worth confirming your route does not cross that closed segment before you drive out, especially since the closure runs through the fall.
What's Actually on the Calendar Right Now
For anyone deciding how to spend the next couple of weekends in town, here is what is confirmed and dated:
- Every Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.: the Castro Valley Farmers' Market at the BART station lot.
- Saturday, August 22, 5 p.m.: Splendor of Sitar with Purbayan Chatterjee at Castro Valley Center for the Arts, 19501 Redwood Rd.
- Daily: HL Peninsula, with weekday lunch from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., weekend lunch from 10 a.m. to 2:15 p.m., and dinner from 5 to 9:30 p.m. every night.
None of that requires planning a move or evaluating a neighborhood from the outside. It is just what a normal week looks like right now for anyone who already calls Castro Valley home, on a boulevard that spent two years being an empty storefront and a rumor mill, and is now doing something nobody quite predicted.
If you are simply curious what your Castro Valley home might be worth in a market that keeps surprising people, Linda Traurig offers a free, no-pressure home valuation any time you want a second opinion grounded in what is actually happening in the neighborhood.
