BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Left Bank Brasserie, a staple restaurant in downtown Menlo Park and fixture in the Peninsula culinary scene, is shutting down.
General Manager Roderick Sevilla said the costs of labor were the biggest challenge for the French restaurant at 635 Santa Cruz Ave., which opened in 1998.
“Every restaurant in the entire Bay Area is feeling this type of pressure,” Sevilla said in an interview today (June 22).
Left Bank’s sister restaurants are closing in Tiburon, Larkspur, San Ramon and Santana Row, the parent company Vine Hospitality announced.
Menlo Park’s last day is tomorrow (June 23), and all 35 to 40 employees will be laid off, Sevilla said.
Sevilla was hired five months ago, along with a new assistant general manager and executive chef, to try to turn the restaurant around.
“All the employees here were on the same mission. They wanted to make sure we were providing the best hospitality and French food in town,” Sevilla said.
Sevilla said the team raised reviews from 3.6 to 4.5 stars on OpenTable by reconnecting with regulars and dispelling rumors the restaurant was closing.
But Left Bank was challenged by Menlo Park’s $17.55 minimum wage.
“It puts a lot of pressure on the staff that is on site to individually manage what two or three people would do like 10 years ago,” Sevilla said.
Food prices have gone up with gas prices, and foot traffic has fallen by 15% to 20%, Sevilla said.
“The margins are so little on a restaurant of this size, you can’t maintain being in the red,” Sevilla said.
Sevilla thanked his customers and the company owners.
“I appreciate the opportunity to try to change a dying brand. They honestly did what they could,” he said.
Vine Hospitality was founded by Ed Levine in 1994 when he opened the Left Bank in Larkspur. The Menlo Park location opened in 1998. The company managed seven French, Mediterranean and modern American concepts across the Bay Area.
Last year, Vine closed its Rollati Ristorante, an Italian-American restaurant across from San Jose City Hall, due to declining revenues, management said. Foot traffic had fallen 30% in the previous year.
This is tragic! Left Bank has been a joy in Menlo Park for decades. The best place for big celebrations like New Year’s Eve and Thanksgiving, but also for happy hour, and casual or special occasion exceptional dining. They made so many wonderful, delicious French dishes.
I feel very sorry for Menlo Park. We lost the beloved Carpaccio Ristorante last year, our coziest Italian restaurant, and now Left Bank, a Menlo Park institution. Due to its large size, Left Bank served as a popular community gathering place as well. A couple of years ago, they had a fabulous Bastille Day celebration with waitresses dressed up in Marie Antoinette-style costumes, French music playing, and complimentary sparkling wine and bite-sized pieces of their signature opera cake for people to enjoy outside.
Their outdoor tables were often filled during both lunch and dinner in spring and summer and warm fall days. They did a beautiful remodel of the interior some years back, and with its curving staircase and sparkling tile floor, the ambience was both elegant and festive.
Sadly, this is what comes of government interference with the relationship between small business and the public it serves: the unintended consequence of government raising the minimum wage. There are no free lunches–someone has to pay. In this case, the restaurant loses, their employees lose, and our community loses. That’s a very high price to pay.
I’m sorry but Left Bank isn’t closing because of minimum wage even if that is what this General Manager blames it on. This restaurant was dead for years. The picture in the article is so accurate, a couple people at the bar. Don’t get me wrong I’ve been on those stools plenty of times but Menlo Park needs a refresh and has to stop blocking progress on all fronts.
I’ve got some good memories at Left Bank too, but time for some new restaurants and new housing to boot.
When you run a high end restaurant in a wealthy community and can not pay a wage to live on, you should not be in business. Family owned companies have more invested than cold cash and hang on longer and survive longer. They are part of the cummunity . Corporations are not. The need for unions was never as great as now. Pretentious tip hand outs to employees bending over backwards to hang on for more tips, strips them of dignity. I used to eat hamburgers from union employees , I had breakfast at sears. Corporations with lawyers under Reagan was the beginning. Capitalistic universities, deregulation, greed was good, smirky actors and pill box princess full of vanity.paved the way of self delusion. Jimmies solar panels scrapped, self-indulgence was the result all on the way to Epstein. Thanks republicans mission accomplished.
Sorry dear customers but there is something when you are looking for service personal to exploit to fullfill never ending demands you do not deserve the work they do.
California is beginning to reap what it sows.
Raising the minimum wage for workers is absolutely needed. Inflation driving prices higher, local rents higher, gas, insurance, food in a restaurant are all 15-20% than just a few years ago. Seventeen fifty-five is not much higher than fifteen dollars. (Many workers are paid above minimum wage.) $2.55 more per hour in eight hours is about $25 a day. One table of four’s bill would pay that for 8-10 minimum wage earners. A little marketing, some advertised specials, outdoor signage (advertising in the local free papers) would certainly assist in bringing in that missing 15%. How about a loyalty program for regulars? Sponsor a kid’s soccer team? One night offer no corkage fee — maybe a Tuesday when traffic is down. My sense is they rested a bit too much on their laurels and got passed by other restaurateurs who keep their name in the marketplace.
This is what happens when governments insert themselves into market forces.
Communism doesn’t work.
Reality is the place had an outdated menu and poor food quality.
People love French food, but his place just was stuck in the 1980s.
All I needed was going online and copy the menu of any decent Parisian bistro.
And the flooring, looked like being kn a public toilet.
“ That’s a very high price to pay.”
You could’ve just paid a little more in the restaurant so that the people who work there can also enjoy a reasonable living wage. You did this to yourself, you professional victim. Or is the deal that you only enjoy your food if it’s prepared and served by people who are unable to afford the same things as you?
Rollate was a damn good restaurant but in the absolute worst location probably in all of downtown San Jose… homeless constantly bothering the public and all the drug use feces surrounding the area I bet it fell way more than 30%.
RIP Left Bank.
I was a Left Bank regular for many years, but that was a decade ago. Their menu never changed, outside of some seasonal special days. Periodically I stop and look at the menu, and the only thing that’s changed are the prices. So this closing doesn’t surprise me. Consumers want variety. The regulars that order the same thing time and again can only take you so far. Maybe we’ll get some new, creative chef in that space.
Blaming minimum wage hike while refusing to trim their bloated C-suite or marketing budget suggests the financial strain isn’t just about labor—it’s about how the pie is divided.
Bistro Vida next door has always been FAR superior and continues to be. The food at Left Bank was always “Corporate Chain” quality, ie meh, imitation french, the Arbee’s of French food. The onion soup was gooey slop. A “poseur”, as the french would say, a poor imitation of a bistro. Plus it was noisy, the service was terrible … oh and the clock outside has not worked for 10 years. Could not get their act together. A deserved closing of a second rate place, I will not miss it at all. Hope Ali can keep Bistro Vida going ! So, a larger question, pls count how many empty store fronts there now are on Santa Cruz Ave in MPK, ominous, not looking up. Gulp.. If the parking lot thing goes through, MPK is toast, er gruyere.
Bistro Vida is a poor imitation…
The minimum wage has really hurt restaurants. In Menlo Park, the wage is $17.55 an hour. To illustrate how the minimum wage doesn’t work, take the state of California’s decision to raise the minimum at fast food restaurants starting in August 2024. Now that two years have gone by, we have some research about the increase that should inform city council members about the harm these increases have caused:
1. Workers got fewer hours, OT was eliminated, and the workers had difficulty in qualifying for healthcare benefits, according to a Northeastern University study found in Applied Economic Letters, April 2026.
2. Menu prices went up 8% to 12%, according to a UC Santa Cruz survey.
3. Employers responded by bringing in more automation, like drive-up order takers.
4. About 1,350 fast food franchisees shut down, according to an industry tracker called Snappy.
The increased wage was intended to improve life for low-skilled workers, but it had the opposite effect: They got fewer hours or lost their jobs altogether. Fewer hours means they were paid less.
The problem is that these higher wages are being imposed by city councils or legislatures consisting of trust-fund babies who have never worked a day in their lives, dyed-in-the-wool socialists who think the government ought to own everything or employees of governments or nonprofits who have bulls&#* jobs. People who work for a living or who struggle to start businesses are rarely represented on city councils or the legislature because they have busy lives and don’t have time to get involved in local politics.
Blaming higher wages for underpaid part-time employees with no benefits is B S. So because wages went up $5 an hour, you cut 2 employees out of 3 if I read correctly what your saying! These corporations have no shame! You’re closing because you don’t know how to run a business, admit it. And I should say “businesses” because expanding like you did in the past 6 years is reckless. Also, people like me who used to be customers – loved the cassoulet – have found better, cheaper, friendlier options like Bistro Vida in Menlo Park. You failed because you expanded too much and it is costly. You failed because you did not keep up with the competition. You failed because you missed the fact that filling up a small place daily is better than raising prices to make up for empty seats (ask the airlines). If you can’t figure this out, then indeed you should not be in business. Stop blaming the employees and the customers, there the ingress who kept you afloat all these years.
Your math is wrong. But what’s even more humorous is your idea that thousands of restaurants made the same mistake at the same time. You won’t admit it, but raising the minimum wage was a business killer. Have you ever signed the front of a paycheck before?
Where have you been Paul? Do you have a job? The reason why these workers are underpaid, part-time and lack benefits is because of the high minimum wage. You reversed the horse and the cart. These employees started out as full-timers with benefits. But when minimum wages were forced up, something had to give. Employers reduced their employees’ hours and benefits. It’s a zero-sum game. If you force up the minimum wage, you have to pay for it somehow. There’s not a money tree gives employers more money to pay higher wages.
Why would any business invest in or commit to Menlo Park when the city’s contemplating replacing half the downtown parking — all parking north of Santa Cruz Ave to Oak Grove — with low income housing? Daytime parking was so bad years ago I had to switch 2 personal service businesses because I — and lots of others — were wasting too much time and energy circling looking for parking.
I was a GM there about 10 years ago. I’m a seasoned professional and was appalled at their lack of health and safety standards, dirty walking fridges, lack of tracking inventory etc… [Portion removed — Terms of Use violation.] His workers were rather dissatisfied there, food was mediocre… Overall a horrible company. I didn’t last long and after a few months, I was disgusted and left. Though large-scale spaces like The Left Bank are now fading due to many obvious reasons, this place had high turnover for a reason. RIP. I’m also not convinced that any large-property concept could survive in the current challenges that restaurants face today. Yeah, I must say I’m sad about the staff losing a job but feel a little schadenfreude about their decline. Perhaps the city can buy it and turn it into a cool community-based endeavor. Just a thought.