An upscale San Jose restaurant has closed less than two years after it opened, as the city grapples with attracting people to the downtown core.
Rollati Ristorante, an Italian-American restaurant across from San Jose City Hall, abruptly closed Tuesday due to declining revenues. Customer foot traffic dropped 30% from last year, according to Alistair Levine, CEO of Vine Hospitality which owned the restaurant. Levine said the group plans to focus on their other restaurants, including three in Santana Row — Left Bank, L.B. Steak and Meso Modern Mediterranean.
“It became obvious with our partners that the level of business was not sustainable,” Levine told San José Spotlight. “We tried multiple pivots over the last nine months in terms of dining room layout, menus, etc. and just didn’t find a formula that connected with guests.”
Levine said there’s not enough people frequenting downtown, unlike Santana Row, the upscale shopping and dining destination about six miles from the downtown, which bounced back quickly after the pandemic.
“Santana Row receives significantly more foot traffic and that was a huge part of the challenge with Rollati,” Levine said.
The restaurant was a mainstay for City Hall workers and officials who work across the street, including Mayor Matt Mahan. District 3 Councilmember Anthony Tordillos, whose district includes downtown, said Rollati’s closure isn’t an indication of the viability of upscale restaurants in the city center. He points to two recent establishments — The Pressroom and Eos & Nyx — that are “thriving.”
“Every business is unique so I don’t think we can take this unfortunate closure and apply it to the entire downtown,” Tordillos told San José Spotlight.
While incentive programs are useful, foot traffic continues to stall and office buildings remain vacant, he said. Tordillos is focused on getting more housing built as part of a strategy to bring more people downtown.
“By building more housing downtown, we can improve affordability and increase foot traffic, which will in turn support local businesses by providing more regular customers,” Tordillos said. “But we can also capitalize on events and growing our entertainment economy to bring visitors downtown, from Sharks games at SAP to the marquee events we have coming up next year like the Super Bowl and World Cup.”
Rollati closed after various attempts to change its menu. But the foot traffic wasn’t there. Photo courtesy of Vine Hospitality.
Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara will host Super Bowl 60 Feb. 8, only a few months before the World Cup matches in June. Preparations are underway for both events and a roughly $25 million renovation of Levi’s Stadium’s field to fit FIFA requirements is complete. These major sporting events are expected to bring thousands of visitors and provide a boon for the local economy.
The city has invested in numerous ways to revitalize downtown after office workers left during the pandemic, such as closing San Pedro and Post streets to cars for better walkability. While downtown San Jose hasn’t seen the return of 9-to-5 office workers during the day, nighttime traffic has returned to about 97% of pre-pandemic levels, according to Gumby Marques, interim CEO for the San Jose Downtown Association.
“We need to bring more people downtown and fuel the economic heart of our city, but we can’t rely on pre-pandemic norms to do it,” Tordillos said.
Levine said in order for businesses in downtown to thrive, it requires finding a niche and building customer loyalty for guests to continue to frequent the restaurant.
“Unfortunately we were not able to do that at this location,” he said.
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.
Dining and Cooking