Top Bay Area coffee shop and Indonesian restaurant have closed
Chef-owner Nora Haron announced the news, as well as the closure of her adjacent Indonesian-inspired cafe, Kopi Bar, in a press release Friday. Despite strong weekend crowds, she said that slow midweek activity was too much to overcome. Monthly rent for the space on North Main Street, a quieter stretch compared to the heart of downtown Walnut Creek, was more than $28,500, according to Haron. The businesses closed March 2.
The upscale restaurant and coffee bar opened in early 2023. At SanDai, Haron put a California twist on the cuisine of her family's Nusantara, a geographical and cultural zone which encompasses Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei, as well as parts of Thailand and the Philippines. Haron's sought-after dishes included her pickled pineapple topped beef rendang, fish fried rice and a raviolo stuffed with tiger prawn in a red broth.
'We really had a good time with the fun-loving atmosphere and sunny, stroll-friendly streets of Walnut Creek,' Haron said in an email to the Chronicle. 'We had a lot of very loyal, hyperlocal fans and we made such heartfelt connections in the community.'
Kopi Bar offered Indonesian-inspired beverages like creamy avocado coffees and coconut cappuccinos made with beans roasted by Oakland company Mr. Espresso. Pastries displayed Haron's baking expertise, with croissant muffins stuffed with coconut-egg cream and lapis gulung, a traditional Indonesian cake made with an egg-heavy batter featuring nutmeg and other spices. It ranked among Chronicle restaurant critic Cesar Hernandez's list of the Bay Area's best coffee shops.
While the first incarnation of Kopi Bar has closed its doors the brand will live on, Haron said, she hopes to expand the coffee shop to new locations through next year.
'We're growing, evolving, and bringing Kopi Bar to even more people,' she said. 'This is just the beginning.' A spokesperson for the restaurants said these plans are very early in development and no further information was available.
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They're part of a LightHouse program that provides communications devices, training and technical support to deafblind clients throughout California. The Federal Communications Commission awarded the LightHouse $832,853 to run the program in the fiscal year ending in June 2025. It served 126 active participants that year, according to the LightHouse. Angela Palmer of Hayward said the LightHouse recently reassigned or laid off employees in the program who were skilled in braille technology as well as tactile American Sign Language, which deafblind people use to communicate by signing into each other's hands. About a year ago, the LightHouse replaced those staff members with a person who knows tactile ASL but has limited ability in braille technology, she said. Palmer uses a keyboard with a refreshable braille display connected to her iPhone and computer to read and send messages, and to check her bank account and medical records. But she said the LightHouse trainer did not set up the phone correctly, leaving her unable to send emails and more reliant on her partner. 'It makes me feel inadequate, isolated, worried about my future,' she said. Four other members of the program provided video testimonials reporting similar problems, which they posted on a website calling for the FCC to stop working with the LightHouse. Cox said the individuals did not contact LightHouse directly with their complaints. Palmer, however, said she did inform the LightHouse of the issue recently. McCown said that the LightHouse has 10 staff members who can assist deafblind clients, and that all are proficient in braille. However, the LightHouse said it had only three employees working in the program in July 2024, in its response to a complaint former employee Mussie Gebre filed with the Federal Communications Commission, alleging the LightHouse provided insufficient staffing and failed to hire qualified personnel. Only one of those employees still works in the program full-time, said Gebre, who is deafblind and lives in Oakland. The LightHouse has asked the FCC to dismiss the complaint and denies the allegations. Gebre said he expects the FCC to respond in the coming weeks. 'Our ultimate objective is ensuring deafblind people can use the telephone or Internet to communicate with their families, and emergency services,' he said, 'access that the rest of society takes for granted.'
