To end our Silicon Valley Day Tour, we went to Buck’s Restaurant in Woodside for dinner.
What might look like an Ali Baba’s cave is really a wonderful place to enjoy a burger while looking at a funny collection of random items.
The Treasure Hunt
Buck’s provides kids with a great treasure hunt, listing more than 20 items displayed in the restaurant, such as:
- San Francisco in shaky Jell-O,
- Miss Liberty with hot fudge sundae,
- Huge hand prints,
- Five green iguanas,
- ON AIR over door,
- a “Part plane, part tiger, part shark, look out !”
- the Back Door
And yes, even if the treasure hunt was made for kids, are we not all big kids?
The History of Buck’s of Woodside
The owner, Jamis MacNiven, opened Buck’s of Woodside in 1991. He has a collection of random items which he fancies or which were given to him. From things with real value (historic or monetary) to gifts, each item of the collection has an interesting story behind it.
The place is well-known in the area for being the place where venture capitalists and tech entrepreneurs meet in the Valley “to hammer out the Information Age”. Over the last 20 years, Buck’s of Woodside was the site of monumental moments, from the first demos of PayPal – which secured its funding there – to the foundation of Tesla and Hotmail.
Fun facts
- Steve Jobs is one of the few Silicon Valley icons that never set foot in the restaurant. However, there is a picture of him hanging somewhere on the walls.
- Paradox : Buck’s was the first place in the country to offer a public wifi spot but still use a 27 year old point of sale system (which happen to be the oldest in the world).
- The only customer who had a meal named after him is Dr Perkins, a local ear surgeon who used to order the same thing every time : omelette of egg whites, Boca Burger soy patty, green onions and fat free Swiss cheese
- Buck’s has the world’s largest Swiss Army Knife, worth $1’200!
Learn more about Buck’s Restaurant and its owner here.