Sorry to hear that it didn't work out.

Speaking not to the Fire-Oak-Barley venture but to the parent firm Le Boulanger, I was a loyal fan of that Bay-Area chain for many (15?) years, and referred other people to it.

Less so lately, for a few reasons, roughly simultaneous, in recent years. A couple of which may just be restaurant-industry-wide issues. One was not: when I checked ingredients lists, this bakery chain was persisting in using commodity hydrogenated fats (the kind with "trans-" bond fatty acids, which don't occur in natural food sources to speak of) in its sweet pastries. This was not 1965, but the 20teens, and might even still be true. And it's not some niche or fad dietary concern: those synthetically hardened fats have been medically criticized since the 1950s, and officially "on the way out" from US food products since the 1990s. Several other regiona fresh bread and pastry bakeries have managed without them for many years.

The other reasons concerned customer relations and competition. Formerly, Le Boulanger had a particularly appealing affinity program; regular customers earned credits on things like sandwiches, and could redeem them for freebies, every so many. Offering double points one day a week was just enough incentive for me to choose Boulanger more often. But all that changed, and the firm now sends email promotions just like many other businesses (and with short notice -- no more predictable double-points day.)

The other factor was that in my usual stomping ground of downtown Mountain View, three more restaurants opened in the last year or two with attractive sandwich menus, so there's simple competition where earlier, Boulanger was the dominant sandwich purveyor in that neighborhood.

why do you people always need perks, isn't good food enough ?

Tried this place twice.

Not bad, but not distinctive in any way either. So not surprised at this news.

I tried it once and nothing was compelling me to visit the restaurant again. It seemed too expensive for a place where you need to order your food at the counter. It was just okay, and that was probably the problem.

I never tried this short-lived pizza joint, but then again, I considered the bread at Le Boulanger to be utterly forgettable.

And that's what pizza essentially is: it's bread dough with some toppings. Mediocre pizza dough will always equate to mediocre pizza. There was no way in hell that I was going to be one of their early guinea pigs despite the fact that pizza is a pretty inexpensive dish. I just had no interest in their bread to begin with.

I don't buy Le Boulanger bread myself, but periodically someone at work brings in their stuff thinking that it is "good." It's not.

Same thing with sandwiches. Put a bunch of stuff between two slices of mediocre bread and what do you get? A forgettable sandwich.

Best of luck to the family that owns Le Boulanger though.

That's very disappointing. Their salmon sandwich was a treat, I guessed the subtle flavor came from the wood fired oven. Same goes for the burger, which was better than what you can get at the place next door (granted, just the one choice, vs. 200 choices). Will definitely miss them.

I know what would have saved them...remove more parking!

I am sorry for the wasted invested and time. Although the food was OK mostly, they could have done much better imo. The name didn't catch up with the menu, one expects a great selection of wine/whisky/beer based on that name.

And I would like to point out this is not a surprise. In the last few year, several pizza stores on Cal ave. Which was probably driven by the success of other existing pizza parlors/restaurant. Now they are closing one by one (e.g. pizza studio a few months back). Which one will be next, who knows. I just think they should do their homework and do feasibility studies before opening a store. Hopefully, the next people will do better.

I know the landlord well. I told him only a month after the place opened they had too much floor area in too expensive a location for a casual restaurant. There were 158 seats in that place - 3-4x what they needed on any but the most busy of times. Prices were a little high, but food quality was better than good. I am saddened, but not surprised. Or this may just be Le Boulanger being flaky - they are closing lots of restaurants for various reasons, and this just may be caught up in the noise....

Either way, a loss.

I know the landlord well. I told him only a month after the place opened they had too much floor area in too expensive a location for a casual restaurant. There were 158 seats in that place - 3-4x what they needed on any but the most busy of times. Prices were a little high, but food quality was better than good. I am saddened, but not surprised. Or this may just be Le Boulanger being flaky - they are closing lots of restaurants for various reasons, and this just may be caught up in the noise....

Either way, a loss.

LOVED this place. Their Chicken Pesto Pizza outclassed pretty much any other pizza joint in the area, including long-time stalwart Amici's. Also liked the decor/ambience/vibe of the restaurant itself, and the serving staff was laid-back, attentive, and pleasant.

Very sure the concept could've worked, if only it had been 'right-sized'. A 60 to 80-seat restaurant or so would've been a good balance between the kind of business such a place would attract, and the sky-high business rents of the Silicon Valley.

Hope they try again with a smaller-format, and keep the wood-fired ovens!

I liked this restaurant and was sad when it closed. I always thought they would close because the traffic didn't seem to match the millions of dollars they put into the remodel.

In my opinion, the fatal mistake was marketing: the decision not to brand it under Le Boulanger. For example, call it "Fire, Oak & Barley by Le Boulanger." LB is a healthy (local) brand, many people are familiar with it, attracted to it. People didn't know what to make of this Fire Oak place.

They executed great (the food, pricing, remodel) but should've marketed it so that people were familiar with it.