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For more than four decades, Chez TJ has served French contemporary cuisine from a Victorian house in downtown Mountain View. The former Michelin-star restaurant closed its doors on Tuesday after a long culinary run that launched the careers of world-renowned chefs and put Mountain View on the map as a fine dining destination.
“The journey has come to an end based on my health and financial difficulties,” Chez TJ owner George Aviet told this publication.
Aviet announced the closure on a social media post, which has since received dozens of comments expressing dismay about the news. For Aviet, the closure of the restaurant is bittersweet after decades of culinary acclaim that in recent years took a turn.
“Fine dining is fine dying,” Aviet said with a wry laugh.
Last summer, Chez TJ lost its Michelin-star, a prestigious honor for restaurants that Chez TJ had received for 19 years. But even before then, Aviet faced financial pressures to make the upscale dining experience more affordable and accessible to diners. Fewer people were coming into the restaurant after the pandemic, Aviet said, despite efforts to pare down the menu to three or four courses. He also poured money into an extensive remodel a few years ago, but still the crowds did not come.
“People don’t want to sit for two hours anymore and spend $200 on a meal,” the longtime restaurateur said on Thursday. “They’re more cautious about what they spend and where they go.”
Aviet has also struggled with health problems over the past decade, exacerbated in part by the stress of keeping the restaurant afloat, he said. Aviet opened Chez TJ in 1982 with his late partner and chef, Tom McCombie. Aviet invested substantially in the property, treating the restaurant as his nest egg.
“I realized I’m almost 70 years old and to keep it going is a lot,” Aviet said. “I’m fortunate to have it for so long.”
Nine years ago, Aviet saw a potential off-ramp for Chez TJ, but it ultimately did not go anywhere. A local developer wanted to redevelop the property by combining it with an adjacent lot to construct a four-story office complex with a ground-floor restaurant. Aviet said that he was offered $7 million at the time.
But in a split 3-4 vote, the City Council opposed the project on the grounds that the Victorian house, which was originally built in 1894, was historically significant. The property was later added to the California Register of Historical Resources, much to Aviet’s distress. He contends that the house is not historical, as most of the original building has been rebuilt and remodeled. The city has also been looking to put the property on a local historic register, as part of a city-wide update, despite Aviet opting off the register previously.
For now, Aviet has plans to sell or lease the property – but remains worried that the historical listing will deter potential buyers and tenants. Historical status puts in place certain building restrictions, which Aviet says depreciates the property’s value.
“It’s my retirement even though I don’t have the money for it,” he said.
While walking away from Chez TJ is difficult, Aviet says he is hopeful that the property will continue to serve the Mountain View community, if not as a fine dining establishment then perhaps as a casual bistro offering brunch and lunch.
“I feel good about the future of it,” he said.
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Sorry to see this restaurant close up shop…
Wishing the very best for George going forward. The closure marks an end of an era in the peninsula restaurant world.
When I moved nearby (35 years ago), I researched creative independent restaurants for special occasions. While not the only one in the county, TJ had the most enthusiastic press, including national notices from the likes of “Gourmet” magazine. TJ “Tom” McCombie’s standing as a protégé of Simone Beck (Julia Child’s co-author) was widely known. Not long after that, I experienced the first of what would be several memorable meals there, and wrote up public notes on the internet (maybe TJ’s first online notice), in ’91.
After Tom McCombie’s sudden death at 44 in 1994, the restaurant employed a series of very skilled chefs and became something of an advanced training stop for some of them, who later would earned two and three Michelin stars at other establishments (after the Michelin Guide began rating Bay Area restaurants in 2006).
Now that o don’t have kids, I’ve enjoyed going here for a splurge