37°25′46.8″N 122°15′18.4″W / 37.429667°N 122.255111°W
Buck's of Woodside | |
---|---|
Restaurant information | |
Established | 1991 |
Owner(s) | Dylan,Tyler, Rowan MacNiven |
Food type | Traditional American |
Street address | 3062 Woodside Rd. |
City | Woodside, California |
Website | buckswoodside |
Buck's of Woodside is a restaurant in Woodside, California, that has gained fame as a meeting place for venture capitalists and tech entrepreneurs. Like nearby Sand Hill Road, Buck's has become a fixture of Silicon Valley.[1]
About
editJamis MacNiven left his career in construction to open the restaurant in 1991. Unhappy with local restaurants, MacNiven decided to create his own.[2] By 1995, when the dot-com boom began, word of mouth spread that Buck's was a hotspot for Silicon Valley's most powerful.[1]
The restaurant is close to both Sand Hill Road—home to the majority of Silicon Valley's venture capitalists—and Stanford University.[3] Netscape, PayPal, Hotmail and Tesla Motors are among the companies whose entrepreneurs held early meetings at Buck's.[4]
"Breakfast at Buck's" is the title of the introduction of the book, The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs, by venture capitalist Bill Draper.[5]
In 2003, Forbes magazine named Buck's one of its top business restaurants.[6]
The interior of Buck's features colorful decor, including cowboy boots, a talking buffalo head, a model of the Statue of Liberty wearing a sombrero, and a stuffed alligator.[7][8]
According to MacNiven, Steve Jobs is one of the few Silicon Valley icons who never set foot in his restaurant; MacNiven and the Apple co-founder had a falling out in the 1980s after Jobs hired him to remodel his house.[1] Buck's nevertheless has a rare photo of Jobs, wearing a set of Groucho glasses, on display.[9]
When the COVID19 pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, and the resulting restaurant shut-down, Jamis MacNiven decided to retire. In August 2020 Buck's was re-opened by his sons (Dylan, Tyler & Rowan MacNiven) who now run it.
Further reading
edit- MacNiven, Jamis (2004). Breakfast at Buck's: Tales From the Pancake Guy. ISBN 978-0-9742783-0-8.
References
edit- ^ a b c Forrest, Conner (July 4, 2014). "How Buck's of Woodside became the 'Cheers' of Silicon Valley". Tech Republic. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
- ^ Dickinson, Boonsri (February 8, 2012). "Millions Of Dollars In Wealth Were Created At This Silicon Valley Cafe". Business Insider. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
- ^ "Checking A Tech Bellwether: Buck's Restaurant". NPR. August 2, 2010. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
- ^ Jung, Carolyn (May 18, 2014). "Where the tech deals are made". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
- ^ "Buck's of Woodside". The Wall Street Journal. November 17, 2011. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
- ^ "Best Business Restaurants 2003". Forbes. September 24, 2003.
- ^ Morse, Rob (December 6, 2000). "You Want Microchips With That? / Where Silicon Valley's elite meet to eat". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
- ^ Wu, Olivia (July 19, 2002). "The good, the bad and the plenty at Buck's / From wacky decor to servings, excess has its ups, downs". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
- ^ Brownlee, John (January 26, 2013). "Nose Jobs: The Story Behind The Most Incredible Steve Jobs Photo You've Never Seen [Feature]". CultofMac.com. Retrieved 1 May 2015.