Chez TJ, the longtime Mountain View restaurant that helped define fine dining in Silicon Valley, is closing after more than four decades in business inside a historic Victorian home.
“This has not been an easy decision, and one made with great care and reflection,” the restaurant said in an Instagram post Thursday.
It did not give a closing date or explain why it is shutting down.
Opened in November 1982, Chez TJ became one of the South Bay’s best-known special-occasion restaurants, drawing diners to an 1894 Victorian house on Villa Street for elaborate French-inspired tasting menus.
That reputation was shaped in part by the chefs who passed through its kitchen.
In a 2014 feature, the Mountain View Voice called Chez TJ a “star incubator,” pointing to alumni including Joshua Skenes, Bruno Chemel and Christopher Kostow, who later became major names in California fine dining.
Chez TJ’s Michelin run also made it a destination. The restaurant earned its first Michelin star in 2007 and kept Michelin recognition for years after.
For many diners, Chez TJ’s identity was tied as much to its setting as to its food: a formal, high-end meal served inside a creaky old house in a quiet residential pocket of Mountain View.
“To our guests, our team, and our community — thank you for being part of Chez TJ,” the post said.