Buck's of Woodside

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]

Buck's of Woodside
Restaurant information
Established1991
Owner(s)Jamis MacNiven
Food typetraditional American
Street address3062 Woodside Rd.
CityWoodside, California
Websitebuckswoodside.com

Bar at Buck's of Woodside
The sculpture of the Indomitable salmon, installed March 5, 1974 at the Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery, currently outside Buck's of Woodside restaurant in San Mateo County, California.

About

Owner Jamis 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 who now run it.

Further reading
  • MacNiven, Jamis (2004). Breakfast at Buck's: Tales From the Pancake Guy. ISBN 978-0-9742783-0-8.

References
  1. Forrest, Conner (July 4, 2014). "How Buck's of Woodside became the 'Cheers' of Silicon Valley". Tech Republic. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
  2. Dickinson, Boonsri (February 8, 2012). "Millions Of Dollars In Wealth Were Created At This Silicon Valley Cafe". Business Insider. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
  3. "Checking A Tech Bellwether: Buck's Restaurant". NPR. August 2, 2010. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
  4. Jung, Carolyn (May 18, 2014). "Where the tech deals are made". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
  5. "Buck's of Woodside". The Wall Street Journal. November 17, 2011. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
  6. "Best Business Restaurants 2003". Forbes. September 24, 2003.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
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