Peninou French Laundry

Peninou French Laundry and Dry Cleaning was founded in 1903 on Sacramento Street in San Francisco. The company took over the Menlo French Laundry in 1990.

The Menlo French Laundry (sometimes known as Menlo Park French Laundry) was established in 1893 by Pierre and Marie Larrecou. It was the laundry of choice for Jane Stanford. The first location was on El Camino Real between Glenwood and Oak Grove, next to Central School, most recently the site of a Cadillac dealership. The second location was at 1166 El Camino Real. That same building is now Feldman Books. The third location was at 1047 El Camino Real, which today (actually a building with a similar facade built in the 1940s after the widening of El Camino Real) is Peninsula Window Fashions & Design. Then (before 1926) it moved to 558 Santa Cruz Avenue, which most recently was Cindy's Flower Shop. In 1945 the laundry was purchased by Laurent and Eloise Lancestremere. In 1962 it moved to 558 Oak Grove Avenue, which the U.S. Post Office had just abandoned.

Peninou initially continued to operate at 558 Oak Grove Avenue, but since that building was slated to be demolished (and it was demolished in 2017), they moved a into a newly constructed building at 1442 Crane Street.

The "French" in the name of a laundry used to mean "hand washed with careful attention to detail."

More about Menlo French Laundry and the founding family can be found in The Gate Post Vol. XXVIII, No. 5 (Sep/Oct 2003).

Last updated 1 September 2018