The Mirabeau Restaurant was a four-star French restaurant overlooking the Kaiser Roof Garden, open from 1967 to 1985.
The restaurant opened in 1967, and was co-owned by Gilbert Barthe, the maître d' of Ondine, a restaurant in Sausalito, and John Hamilton of Marin County. George Gutekunst and Chef Alfred Robin, partners in Ondine, also signed the lease. 1 In 1969, Robert Beaupre, president of the Seattle First National Bank, asked Barthe to open another Mirabeau restaurant in Seattle.
The original decor included a concrete and mosaic piece by artist Emmy Lou Packard. 9
Over the years, the restaurant had some notable visitors:
- Ronald Reagan - then California governor dined there in 1967 5
- Neil Armstrong - California College of the Arts and Crafts presented a Jacques Schnier sculpture to Armstrong in 1972 2,3
- William Knowland - dined there several times in the days before his death in 1973 4
In 1980, the restaurant was run by the Merritt Park Corporation, with Bonnie Guiton as president and general manager. Andre Pierre Mercier was the chef, and Jean-Paul Menet del La Mellene was the maître d'. 6,8
Although it received a fourth star from the Mobil Guide in 1980, 6 the restaurant closed 5 years later in 1985. The primary reason was that Kaiser stopped subsidizing the restaurant, but high costs of running the restaurant were also cited. 7 The space then became the Central Park Restaurant.
Links and References
- New French Restaurant To Open at Kaiser Center Oakland Tribune June 2, 1967
- The Social Circle by Robin Orr Oakland Tribune November 7, 1972
- A sculptor's odyssey : oral history transcript / 1986 with Jaques Schnier
- One Step From The White House:: The Rise and Fall of Senator William F. Knowland by Gayle B. Montgomery and James W. Johnson, UC Press, 1988
- San Leandro senior played for Reagan Oakland Tribune February 3, 2011
- Oakland's Mirabeau gets four starts from Mobil Guide Oakland Tribune May 4, 1980 (p2)
- Kaiser Center's Le Mirabeau Closes June 30 Oakland Tribune June 11, 1985 (p2)
- Oakland: That Other Great City By The Bay Ebony October 1980
- Emmy Lou Packard Graphic Arts Workshop