We now have some dismal news from the local restaurant world, as a well established and seemingly successful restaurant group is ceasing operations and citing the "challenging operating environment" around the Bay.

Vine Hospitality, which owns and operates four Left Bank brasserie locations, two LB Steak restaurants, and a Mediterranean restaurant in San Jose called Meso, is shutting down, making a shocking Monday announcement that impacts around 300 employees.

"With heavy hearts, we share that our Left Bank restaurants will be closing," the team wrote just after noon Monday on Instagram. "Thank you to our guests, team members, and communities for your support, loyalty, and memories over the years. It has been an honor to serve you. Merci for everything."

The Mercury News was the first to report the news, noting that San Jose's Santana Row will be hit especially hard, as it is home to all three restaurant concepts, all of which will abruptly go dark by Wednesday of this week, with Meso closing today.

The Chronicle spoke to CEO Alistair Levine, the son of co-founder Ed Levine, who confirmed the news Monday afternoon, and said the reasons for closing include the "challenging operating environment" around the Bay, and the "explosion" of two deals to open new spots in San Francisco, which required a fundraising effort for more capital.

Levine declined to name what the two San Francisco projects were, but SFist reported in 2022 that a Left Bank Brasserie, or some of offshoot thereof, was slated to open in the former Scala's Bistro space attached to what is now the Beacon Grand Hotel in Union Square — at the time that rebrand from the Sir Francis Drake and the renovation was just taking place. That opening never came to pass, and the restaurant's windows facing Powell Street have remained papered over the past four years.

Ed Levine and chef Roland Passot, of the former La Folie in San Francisco, launched Vine Hospitality in 1994, as the Chronicle notes, opening the first Left Bank location in Larkspur. More locations anc concepts followed, including a Left Bank in Menlo Park that's been there nearly as long, Petite Left Bank in Tiburon, and LB Steak locations in San Ramon and San Jose.

Signs of trouble for the restaurant group go back a couple of years, and Alistair Levine has been in charge since November 2024. That year, a Left Bank location in Oakland’s Jack London Square closed its doors, and last summer, an Italian concept from the group called Rollati Ristorante also closed in San Jose.

Levine tells the Chronicle that a 2024 lawsuit from a former Left Bank Oakland sous chef, involving a wage dispute, was not a factor in the decision to close the restaurants, but "it didn’t help," he adds.

An employee at one of the San Jose restaurants tells the Mercury News that staff was just informed of the shutdown at 9 am Monday. "It’s shocking," the employee said, "We weren’t expecting this. But these things happen in this economy."

The closure of Vine Hospitality's restaurants follows some other bad midyear news on the SF restaurant scene, including the high-profile closures of Shuggie's, Anomaly, and Bar Brucato.