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 last meals Saturday, Aug. 31.

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

Shakewell was founded in 2014 by two alums of Bravo TV’s food programming, Jen Biesty of “Top Chef” and Tim Nugent of “Top Chef: Desserts.” Both had previously been chefs at Scala’s Bistro in San Francisco.

Ghaderi has owned and operated the restaurant for the past year.

“Shakewell was born from the love and dedication of Tim and Jen, who nurtured it for nine amazing years,” the note read. “When Soroush took over, with Tim’s ongoing support, we held on through so many challenges, determined to keep this place alive. … This isn’t the outcome any of us wanted. We’ve fought so hard because Shakewell has been a home, a gathering place, a special little corner of the world where we could all come together.