Iconic Chez TJ closing

Chez TJ, the French fine-dining restaurant in downtown Mountain View, is closing at the end of April after 44 years in business. (nationaltoday.com) The restaurant opened in 1982 at 938 Villa Street inside the 1894 Weilheimer House, a Victorian home that became part of its identity as much as its tasting menus. Owner George Aviet and Thomas J. McCombie, the “TJ” in the name, started the restaurant after meeting at Pear William in Menlo Park. (mercurynews.com) Chez TJ earned its first Michelin star in 2007 and kept at least one star through 2024, a 19-year run that made it one of the Bay Area’s longest-standing Michelin addresses. It reached two stars in 2007 and again in 2009 before returning to one star for most of the streak. (nationaltoday.com) That streak ended in 2025, when Michelin dropped Chez TJ from the guide after the Sacramento awards ceremony. SFGATE reported at the time that the Mountain View restaurant had held a star since Michelin first covered the Bay Area in 2006. (sfgate.com) The closure lands after a year of visible change at the restaurant. In February, Food Gal reported that Chez TJ was in a “reset,” with a new chef, a redesigned dining room and a shift toward a more flexible tasting-menu format after losing the star. (foodgal.com) Local coverage says the restaurant had still been serving contemporary French cuisine from the Villa Street house this spring, and its website was continuing to advertise seasonal tasting menus and wine pairings as of this week. What Now San Francisco reported that the team announced the shutdown on social media and did not give a reason for the decision. (whatnow.com) (cheztj.com) Chez TJ also mattered as a training ground. Mountain View Voice reported that the restaurant helped launch chefs including Bruno Chemel, Jarad Gallagher, Christopher Kostow and Matthew Accarrino, tying one small dining room to a much larger Bay Area restaurant lineage. (mv-voice.com) The restaurant’s final weeks are now its last service run, closing out a 44-year stretch in a city better known for tech campuses than white-tablecloth French dining. The end of April will close the book on one of Mountain View’s longest-running special-occasion restaurants. (nationaltoday.com)