Oakland’s Shakewell restaurant will close after a decade in business

Oakland’s acclaimed Shakewell, a Mediterranean restaurant with “Top Chef” roots, will serve its final meals on Saturday, August 31.

“The reality of these times has caught up with us,” owner Soroush Ghaderi and the Shakewell team wrote in an email to customers last weekend. “Despite everything we’ve tried, we just can’t reach the numbers anymore.”

Shakewell was founded in 2014 by two former Bravo cooking program creators: Jen Biesty of “Top Chef” and Tim Nugent of “Top Chef: Desserts.” Both were previously chefs at Scala’s Bistro in San Francisco.

Ghaderi has owned and operated the restaurant for a year.

“Shakewell was born out of the love and dedication of Tim and Jen, who nurtured it for nine wonderful years,” the memo said. “When Soroush took over, with Tim’s continued support, we weathered many challenges and were determined to keep this place alive. … This is not the outcome any of us wanted. We fought so hard because Shakewell was a home, a gathering place, a special little corner of the world where we could all come together.”