The lobby of the Hotel De Anza in downtown San Jose, seen on Aug. 3, 2026. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
SAN JOSE — A Bay Area restaurant executive and a top-notch chef who specializes in Indian cuisine are poised to open a dining establishment at a downtown San Jose hotel.
Restaurant entrepreneur Ayesha Thapar and Michelin-starred chef Srijith “Sri” Gopinathan are planning a restaurant at 233 W. Santa Clara St., where the historic Hotel De Anza operates, according to official state records.
Thapar and Gopinathan have received a state liquor license for a drinking establishment that must also operate as a restaurant, public records on file with the Alcoholic Beverage Control Department show.
ANS Provisions, which received the state ABC license, lists Thapar as its president and Gopinathan as its treasurer. The license became effective Aug. 5. The liquor license for the restaurant was transferred from the principal owners of the hotel.
Thapar and Gopinathan have teamed up to run multiple high-level restaurants in the Bay Area, including Eylan in Menlo Park, Ettan in Palo Alto, Little Blue Door in Los Altos, and Copra in San Francisco.
Eylan, which opened last year, was named a Michelin Guide “new discovery.” Gopinathan was chef at San Francisco’s Campton Place during the time it had two Michelin stars.
The two restaurant entrepreneurs operate through a company they call the Cal-India Collective. “Our offerings are grounded in an authentic Indian pedigree informed by California’s reverence for seasonality and exceptional local ingredients,” the company states on its website.
The name of what’s expected to be a new Indian restaurant at the De Anza Hotel wasn’t immediately known. Work is well underway on the restaurant in a space next to the West Santa Clara Street entrance of the 10-story tower.
Word of the new restaurant has arrived at a time when the hotel has launched a wide-ranging renovation.
Dhaval Panchal and Sean Curtis, co-owners of the Hotel De Anza, see plenty of upside in the 100-room hotel, for which they paid $11.5 million in 2024.
“We love this place,” said Curtis, the hotel’s chief operating officer. “It’s an iconic, great hotel.”
In 2025, the owners relit the neon sign atop the hotel, a key piece of the venture to greatly restore the property.
Inside, the ownership group is renovating the lobby area along with the Palm Terrace and the historic Hedley Club, according to Curtis.
“The entire hotel will be brand new,” Curtis said. “We will be painting the hotel back to the color that it was in the 1990s. The hotel is going to be painted from top to bottom.”
Dining and Cooking