Swanky Silicon Valley hotel taps chef from Michelin-starred Chez TJ for new bar,  fine dining restaurant  

Elena Kadvany,  

A splashy new Silicon Valley hotel wants to become a major dining and drinking  destination for the region, with a cocktail bar, cafe, Spanish restaurant and fine dining  concepts.  

The Shashi Hotel at 1625 N. Shoreline Blvd., in Mountain View, a 200-room hotel from  developer Shashi Group that counts among its amenities its proximity to Google’s  headquarters and a goal to offer Michelin-star food, opened on Monday. The Emerald  Hour, a bar with seasonal cocktails, natural wine and European-inspired fare, also made  its debut on Monday. 

Jarad Gallagher, the former executive chef of the Michelin-starred contemporary French  restaurant Chez TJ in Mountain View, is behind the hotel’s ambitious food and drink  options, along with co-chef Aubree Arndt from Loma Brewing Co. in Los Gatos. Justin  Rodriguez, a former general manager of Chez TJ, as well as Cotogna and Quince in San  Francisco, is overseeing operations.  

The cocktail bar is the first of four concepts that will open at the hotel. Carte Blanche, a  coffee shop; Broma, a casual Spanish restaurant; and Belle Terra, a more upscale, fine  dining experience, will open later this year.  

Broma will take inspiration from a 2019 trip to Spain, when Gallagher and other team  members ate their way through the country. Gallagher hopes to channel their  experiences with a range of Spanish cuisine, from eating tapas at bars to modern dishes  at full-service restaurants. Think jamón ibérico, Basque-style cheese fondue, and fideuà,  a paella-like dish from Valencia made with pasta instead of rice, and Spanish wines. 

Belle Terra, meanwhile, which means “beautiful earth,” will serve French-European  cuisine with ingredients sourced from a private farm. The restaurant will offer both a la  carte and tasting menus so people can choose but don’t have to opt into an hours-long  meal, Gallagher said.  

“I still feel the South Bay in particular could use a fine dining restaurant that is not heavy  tasting-menu driven,” he said.  

Belle Terra will also emphasize wine and rare spirits, with a floor-to-ceiling wine cellar  and its own bar, called the Parlor, which will be separate from the Emerald Hour.  

The Emerald Hour serves its own take on classic cocktails, such as an old-fashioned with  house-made bitters and charred cherry-wood syrup made by caramelizing wood chips in  sugar and infusing them into simple syrup; or a Paloma made from Tequila milk punch  infused with grapefruit peels and cinnamon. The bar’s creations are seasonally driven,  like a gin on the rocks served with gin and Lillet-infused snap peas.  

The menu includes several nonalcoholic cocktails. Wines by the glass are mostly natural,  which the bar defines as biodynamic, certified organic or made without sulfur.  

For food, think European-inspired small bites like gildas, a Spanish pintxo of manzanilla  olives with boquerones and guindilla peppers; veal sweetbreads with ibérico chorizo,  medjool dates and pine nuts; as well as halibut crudo and Tomales Bay oysters. Entrees  include sandwiches on bread from Mountain View bakery the Midwife and the Baker; a  Wagyu cheeseburger; whole striped bass stuffed with chimichurri and roasted in a pizza  oven; and alentejo, a braised pork, clam and potato stew that Gallagher tried while  traveling through the southern coast of Spain and into Portugal.  

The Emerald Hour. Open daily 3-10 p.m. Reservations and walk-ins  welcome. theemeraldhour.com