Vine Hospitality closes seven Bay Area restaurants, 300 workers affected

Vine Hospitality shut down all seven of its Bay Area restaurants, putting roughly 300 to 365 workers out of work as Left Bank, LB Steak and Meso Modern Mediterranean locations from Larkspur to San Ramon closed over June 22-24. The closures hit multiple spots at Santana Row in San Jose, where customers arrived to locked doors after the shutdown was announced.

The affected restaurants were Left Bank Brasserie in Larkspur, Menlo Park and Santana Row; Petite Left Bank in Tiburon; Meso Modern Mediterranean at Santana Row; and LB Steak in Santana Row and at Bishop Ranch City Center in San Ramon. Vine Hospitality posted the shutdowns on its social media accounts and told employees the restaurants were closing, while the company also filed WARN notices tied to the layoffs and closures.

CEO Alistair Levine blamed a difficult operating climate and said the business was no longer successful enough to keep going. He pointed to rising food and ingredient costs and said Vine Hospitality had been unable to secure financing for two planned San Francisco restaurant projects that never opened. Levine also said the company had no plan to reopen elsewhere in the Bay Area.

Vine Hospitality was founded in 1994 by Ed Levine and chef Roland Passot, beginning with Left Bank in Larkspur. Left Bank’s Santana Row restaurant opened in 2003, LB Steak at Santana Row followed in 2009, Meso Modern Mediterranean opened in 2019, LB Steak in San Ramon opened in 2021 and Petite Left Bank in Tiburon opened in 2022.

A GoFundMe campaign was also started to support former employees.