SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – A longtime Santana Row fixture is disappearing almost overnight.
Left Bank Brasserie, the French restaurant at 377 Santana Row, is scheduled to serve its final meals Tuesday, June 23, ending more than two decades as one of San Jose’s most recognizable spots for steak frites, escargots, mussels, wine and sidewalk people-watching.
The closure is part of a much larger and sudden shutdown by Vine Hospitality, the Bay Area restaurant group behind Left Bank, LB Steak, Meso Modern Mediterranean and Petite Left Bank.
The company is closing all seven of its remaining restaurants over just three days, a move expected to affect roughly 300 employees across the Bay Area.
For Santana Row diners, the news is especially striking. Left Bank has been part of the destination’s restaurant lineup since 2003, bringing the feel of a classic Parisian brasserie to one of San Jose’s busiest shopping and dining districts.
The restaurant was known for its wide patio, large bar, French comfort-food classics and a dining room designed around the energy of a traditional brasserie. Over the years, it became a familiar choice for business lunches, date nights, family celebrations, happy hour drinks and special occasions.
Left Bank’s final day comes as Vine Hospitality also closes Meso Modern Mediterranean at Santana Row. LB Steak, another Vine Hospitality concept at Santana Row, is expected to close Wednesday.
The closures came as a surprise to many employees and regular customers. Vine Hospitality CEO Alistair Levine told the San Francisco Chronicle that the company had been dealing with a difficult operating environment, rising ingredient costs and unsuccessful efforts to secure funding connected to two planned San Francisco restaurant projects.
Levine said employees will receive their final earned wages and vacation pay.
The restaurant group dates back to 1994, when restaurateur Ed Levine and French chef Roland Passot opened the first Left Bank in Larkspur. The concept expanded to Menlo Park in 1998 and Santana Row in 2003, eventually becoming one of the Bay Area’s most visible French restaurant brands.
The company had already faced setbacks in recent years. Vine Hospitality closed Rollati Ristorante in downtown San Jose last year, less than two years after it opened, while its Left Bank location in Oakland closed in 2024.
Now, the Santana Row closure marks the end of another familiar San Jose restaurant name.
For anyone hoping for one last meal at Left Bank, Tuesday is the final opportunity. The restaurant is expected to remain open through its normal dinner service before closing for good.
Appreciate the news of the closure of the Left Bank and associated restaurants. I recall the quality, reasonably priced French cuisine. The authors mentioned closure of the Oakland locale soon after opening, yet interestingly, didn’t discuss the closure of the PHill location in the early 2000s. The latter site became the hub of the popular Jacks Restaurant chain and its spinoffs.