Sitting at the long, elegant bar of the Brass Door with a glass of Chardonnay, Carolyn Krieg recalled a story about the early days of the beloved 70-year-old San Ramon steakhouse that explains her dismay that it will close for good on Christmas Eve.
When it came time to extend Interstate 680 south from Danville to Dublin in the 1960s, residents of San Ramon and the surrounding farms and ranches were outraged that the planned route would plow through their then-tiny village along old Highway 21, according to a news report at the time.
That included the Brass Door, which had become a destination for special-occasion family dinners and power lunches for East Bay movers and shakers. Hundreds packed public meetings, persuading planners to move the freeway to the east — and away from their favorite steakhouse.
“So, when you have something like that, you have to save it because it’s historic,” Krieg said. “How could you let that go?”
But last week, the restaurant’s owner, Shahla Azad, announced she would in fact be letting the Brass Door go, ending operations after serving dinner on Dec. 24. On Facebook, the “Brass Door Team” blamed an unresolvable lease dispute between the building’s owner.
“The Brass Door has been more than a business — it has been a gathering place for friends, families, celebrations, and countless memories,” the Facebook announcement said.
The landlord, however, has offered a different version of events. Nancy Schlesinger, the managing member of 8 to 5 Properties, also has deep, personal ties to the Brass Door. Her family has owned the property for 78 years, after she said her grandfather, Henry “Shorty” Schlesinger, won it in a poker game.
In a statement, Schlesinger’s company said it recognizes that this news “may be unwelcome and unexpected” but that it plans to “fully honor the history and legacy of the property.” Her grandfather initially opened the restaurant as the 20-seat 8/5 Club in 1946. In 1955, his son, Mick Schlesinger, partnered with Dick Basso to re-imagine it as the Brass Door, featuring a distinctive shiny front entrance, and serving steaks, prime rib and other fine-dining classics.
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Whatever the reasons for the dispute, Juan Chavez of Concord will be without a job after Christmas Eve — like all the other employees. Chavez was 16 when he began working there as a busser 35 years ago. One of his regular duties was to polish the front door. He became tearful when he talked about how the owners treated him “like a son.” He also said, “I made a lot of friends with patrons, and I feel lot of pain leaving that behind.”
Schlesinger said her company has begun to explore “new opportunities,” for one of San Ramon’s oldest and most beloved establishments, suggesting that the Brass Door could reopen with new owners. But Schlesinger and her attorney wouldn’t comment on whether employees might find work again at a reopened Brass Door.
Azad’s Facebook announcement spurred a rush in reservations and customers sharing memories about anniversaries or senior prom dinners spent there. Through the 1960s, ’70s and even into the ’80s, the Brass Door was one of the few fine dining restaurants east of the Caldecott Tunnel, before San Ramon was filled with housing developments, Bishop Ranch office park and 86,000 people.
Given that the median life span for a restaurant is fewer than five years, according to a 2104 UC Berkeley study, the Brass Door’s longevity has been pretty remarkable. Over the years, it has expanded to accommodate 200 guests in a large dining area, while surviving a fire, changes in consumer tastes and competition from booming, high-end dining scenes in Walnut Creek and Danville.
On Dec. 11 in the afternoon, Krieg and her boyfriend, Richard Bittner, were among those enjoying a final meal and gathering at the bar with Brass Door friends. There was lots of talk of the restaurant being like “Cheers,” where “everyone knows your name.”
Dennis Pennington, a semi-conductor sales manager who has been coming to The Brass Door for 29 years, looked down the bar and said, “I know eight people here right now.” He noted that Mike Doyle, a five-time former mayor of Danville who died in October at age 96, always occupied a seat at the end of the bar and would be heartbroken by the Brass Door’s closing.
In a phone interview, another former mayor and local historian, Bill Clarkson of San Ramon, said the Brass Door opened when San Ramon’s population was only around 200, and it was a roadhouse for city dwellers taking a drive “into the country” to get a nice meal. More significantly, it became the place where developers and city and county leaders met to plan the region’s future.
“Literally,” Clarkson said, there was “a back door” for these meetings. “Even when I was thinking of running for mayor and getting involved in local politics, I was told that that’s where all the deals were made. I can say that I never met anybody there, but that was its reputation.”
For a long time, regular customers included “cowboys and construction workers,” the latter of whom built the San Ramon Valley, Pennington said. Now, he wonders where he and his Brass Door friends will feel so at home.
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