| Buck's of Woodside | |
| Established: | 1991 |
| Food-Type: | Traditional American |
| Current-Owner: | Dylan,Tyler, Rowan MacNiven |
| Street-Address: | 3062 Woodside Rd. |
| City: | Woodside, California |
37.4297°N -122.2551°WBuck'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]
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 (Dylan, Tyler & Rowan MacNiven) who now run it.