Two Sisters Bar & Books Will Shutter as the Team Heads to the East Bay

When the owners of San Francisco’s Two Sisters Bar & Books announced that they would open Les Arceaux in Berkeley’s former Bistro Liaison, it was assumed that the new space would be an annex to the popular Hayes Valley spot. Not so, apparently, as the duo will shutter their cozy restaurant as soon as the liquor license is transferred, Tablehopper reports this week.

"I did not dream that when I opened this five and a half years ago I would have such an incredible group of bright creative people that want to grow and grow with me,” co-owner Mikah Diaz told Eater. Diaz and chef/co-owner Alana O'Neal already live in the East Bay, as does most of their team, Diaz explained, so the decision to close Two Sisters made sense as they simply outgrew their square footage in Hayes Valley.

"My team is young and serious industry pros and they want to grow. So we went back and forth about it because we love Hayes Valley and our space, but at the end we decided to close and move on."

So, Les Arceaux (pronounced “lez-ar-soh”) will be a cafe and wine bar that expresses O’Neal and Diaz’s “visions of culinary creation and heartfelt hospitality.” With a little more room to work, we can expect a bigger menu, but it will be a little while before the new space in Berkeley becomes the go-to date spot on Shattuck Avenue. Les Arceaux hopes to open by the fall, but some of the time Diaz will be saving on her commute will be put towards a second East Bay project: an undisclosed cocktail bar with Kathryn Kulczyk and Branden Cardelli that is expected to open in 2018. Two Sisters barman Michael Cecconi is also working on a line of bottled cocktails that will be available in stores sometime next year.

In the meantime, fans of Two Sisters will be able to squeeze in a few more date nights or another round of Chamomile Old fashioneds — the bar’s liquor license is in the process of getting transferred and the space has already been bought by a separate entity. But according to Diaz, the team should have about a month’s notice before the impending closure, so we can expect a big going away party or at least one last meeting of the boozy book club.