{"id":416882,"date":"2026-07-29T18:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/416882\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T18:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:50:14","slug":"los-gatos-restaurant-owner-taking-over-prime-campbell-corner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/416882\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Gatos restaurant owner taking over prime Campbell corner"},"content":{"rendered":"

An oft-heard question among South Bay foodies \u2014 What\u2019s going to happen to that Lira restaurant space<\/a> in Campbell? \u2014 now has an answer.<\/p>\n

A noted Los Gatos bartender-turned-restaurateur, Jason Seele, plans to open a bar-lounge at the downtown corner of East Campbell and South Central avenues, with a hoped-for opening date in October.<\/p>\n

Seele explains the concept as a \u201cmodern, technique-driven cocktail bar centered around experimentation, creativity and the process of developing something unexpected.\u201d Hence the intriguing business name, which has already gone up on the front door: Trial | Error.<\/p>\n

Small plates will complement the libations. \u201cWe made a deliberate decision to stay focused on what we know and do best: an ambitious cocktail program paired with creative, delicious food designed for sharing,\u201d he said. Executive chef Manuel \u201cManny\u201d Santillan is heading the kitchen.<\/p>\n

Seele brings an impressive resume to the project. A winner of numerous cocktail competitions and longtime South Bay bartender, he operated the Jack Rose Libation House, named for the cocktail favored by author John Steinbeck<\/a>, who lived and wrote a half-mile from the Los Gatos site, until that property was sold for housing. For the last several years, he has owned the Los Gatos Soda Works.<\/p>\n

Lira, the much-acclaimed restaurant<\/a> that made its debut Jan. 31, 2025, at this Campbell site, with a celebrity chef at the helm, closed its doors<\/a> after New Year\u2019s Eve 2026.<\/p>\n

Chef Tucker Ricchio, a San Jose native who was the season 2 winner of Gordon Ramsay\u2019s \u201cNext Level Chef,\u201d and the owners parted ways less than five months into the project<\/a>. The owners kept the restaurant going for another several months.<\/p>\n

Prior to Lira, that building housed the Flights restaurant concept<\/a>, which specialized in trios of drinks, appetizers and desserts, and before that, Socialight.<\/p>\n

Details: 368 E. Campbell Ave., Campbell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An oft-heard question among South Bay foodies \u2014 What\u2019s going to happen to that Lira restaurant space in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,7,185,421,181,23,190,100,412,88,90,89,198,200,420],"class_list":["post-416882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-campbell","tag-food-and-drink","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-los-gatos","tag-news","tag-restaurants","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-south-bay","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}