Buck's of Woodside | |
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Restaurant information | |
Established | 1991 |
Owner(s) | Dylan,Tyler, Rowan MacNiven |
Food type | Traditional American |
Location | 3062 Woodside Rd., Woodside, California |
Website | buckswoodside |
Buck's of Woodside (Locally known as: Buck's) 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]
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 holding an Ice cream Sunday, 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 COVID-19 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.