Longtime Bay Area hospitality group to abruptly close all of its restaurants, lay off 300 workers
Vine Hospitality, a longtime Bay Area group that operates a fleet of French, American and Mediterranean restaurants including Petite Left Bank in Tiburon and Left Bank Brasserie in Menlo Park, abruptly ceased operations this week, leaving employees scrambling.
The group will be closing all of its seven restaurants over the next two days, resulting in roughly 300 employees being laid off, CEO Alistair Levine confirmed to the Chronicle. The closures were first reported by the Mercury News.
Along with Left Bank Brasserie and Petite Left Bank, the closures will affect Left Bank's two other locations in Larkspur and Santana Row in San Jose; Meso Modern Mediterranean at Santana Row; and two LB Steak locations, at Santana Row and City Center Bishop Ranch in San Ramon. Petite Left Bank, Meso Modern Mediterranean and Bishop Ranch LB Steak will close on Monday; Left Bank Brasserie Menlo Park and San Jose on Tuesday; and Left Bank Larkspur and LB Steak at Santana Row on Wednesday, according to an Instagram post.
The closures are the result of a "challenging operating environment," combined with two unopened restaurants in San Francisco that "exploded at the last second," according to Levine. He declined to identify the locations or names of the two restaurants that his organization was working to open in San Francisco, but said that his team was "working to raise more capital" toward the projects from a capital partner "related to the core group," but was "unsuccessful."
All of the company's employees will receive their final earned wages and vacation pay, he said.
Levine's late father, restaurateur Ed Levine, and prominent French chef Roland Passot of the now-closed La Folie started Vine Hospitality in 1994, with the opening of Left Bank in Larkspur. Over three decades, Vine expanded from a single North Bay restaurant into a multi-concept group with French, Mediterranean, steakhouse and Italian brands across the region.
Levine took over the company's operations in November 2024, following the departure of its previous CEO, Obadiah Ostergard.
Last summer, Vine shuttered Rollati Ristorante, a modern Italian-American restaurant, less than two years after it opened in San Jose, citing declining sales in news articles. Left Bank Brasserie's Location in Oakland's Jack London Square also closed in 2024. Vine Hospitality is also facing a lawsuit, filed by a former Left Bank Oakland sous chef in late 2024, alleging he was not properly compensated and that he was wrongfully terminated, according to court records. Vine Hospitality has denied his claims in court. Levine said the lawsuit "isn't what drove the closure," but added, "it didn't help."
According to Levine, Bay Area restaurants - like the rest of the economy - are impacted by a "K-shaped" recovery in the wake of the pandemic: "Some people are thriving but most of the industry is severely struggling." He also blamed a sharp increase in ingredient prices over the last four months, from tomatoes to beef.
"It's a very challenging business at the best of times, but the volatility that exists on the ingredient side makes it incredibly punishing right now," Levine said.
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