The Lark Creek Restaurant Group History

A Tradition of Seasonal, Farm-Fresh Dining Since 1989

The Tavern at Lark Creek^®
234 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur, CA 94939 415.924.7766
The first restaurant in Lark Creek Restaurant Group, then known as The Lark Creek Inn, had its inception when Bradley & Jody Ogden and Michael & Leslye Dellar joined forces in 1988 to acquire and remodel The Lark Creek Inn in picturesque Larkspur, Marin County. This American country restaurant with its all-American wine list opened on August 22, 1989, and was hailed almost immediately for its commitment to the highest standards of hospitality, service and culinary excellence. Its seasonal, farm-fresh American fare earned it the highest industry honors and prompted Food & Wine magazine to write "The best home cooking you can imagine, updated and lightened," and The New York Times to say "Gutsy country cooking makes the drive from downtown San Francisco worthwhile." The Lark Creek Inn was voted Best Restaurant in the North Bay by San Francisco Chronicle Reader's Choice Poll, and Gourmet magazine awarded the restaurant an "America's Top Tables" title in its Bay Area's Top 20 List. In 1994, it was inducted into Nation's Restaurant News' Fine Dining Hall of Fame, and is a member of DiRoNA, Distinguished Restaurants of North America.

Debuting on June 4, 2009, The Tavern at Lark Creek represents the next chapter in the life of the historic, circa 1888 Victorian Murphy House. The Tavern received a Bib Gourmand Rating in the San Francisco 2010 Michelin Guide recognizing great value at high quality, as well as numerous accolades from local and national media for its "recession-friendly" farm-to-table menu and "value-driven" beverage selections.

One Market^® Restaurant
1 Market St., San Francisco, CA 94105 415.777.5577
One Market Restaurant in San Francisco opened on February 16, 1993. The Ogden/Dellar team gave the Bay Area a bustling cosmopolitan environment to showcase sophisticated all-American fare and an award-winning list of over 500 American wines. One Market was voted Best New Restaurant of 1993 in the prestigious San Francisco Focus magazine Readers’ Restaurant Poll. The same year, Ogden received the James Beard Society’s award as Best Chef – California and the following year Dellar was awarded the ADL’s Restaurant Industry Achievement Award. In 1995, Gourmet Magazine exclaimed “farm-fresh food is this restaurant's mantra.”

Comprehensive remodels in 1997 and 2003 softened the tone of the restaurant atmosphere and created a wood-fired cooking display right in the dining room. Under the direction of Chef Mark Dommen, One Market has been awarded a highly-coveted Michelin Star every year since 2008. One Market has received prestigious awards from national publications including Food & Wine magazine, Best American Wine List; Wine Spectator, Best of Award of Excellence; Santé magazine, Restaurant Service and Hospitality; and Wine Enthusiast magazine, Top 10 wine-friendly restaurants. Gourmet named the restaurant "Best for Business." The restaurant received 3 ½ stars from San Francisco Magazine, has been on the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Bay Area Top 100 Restaurants” list with a 3 ½ star rating, and is a member of DiRoNA. Today, One Market is one of the premiere restaurants in the City for private dining of any size party.

Lark Creek Walnut Creek
1360 Locust St., Walnut Creek, CA 94596 925.256.1234
Lark Creek Walnut Creek opened on July 18, 1995 and represents a bit more casual version of The Lark Creek Inn, responding to today's interest in high-quality, reasonably priced food served in a friendly neighborhood environment by a skilled, attentive staff. The atmosphere offered in Walnut Creek is light, airy and homey with American country charm. Featured are outdoor street-side seating, an open kitchen and convivial bar. The menu offer favorites from The Lark Creek Inn plus many new dishes, reflecting a farm-fresh American culinary tradition and also features selections of 125 wines, emphasizing the local wine growing regions. Both San Francisco Focus and Diablo magazines readers voted Lark Creek Walnut Creek "Best New Restaurant." Diablo magazine readers also awarded Lark Creek Walnut Creek with Best 'Old' Restaurant. The Oakville Room was opened in 2005, seating up to 36 guests for private functions.

Lark Creek Steak at the Westfield San Francisco Centre
845 Market Street, 4th Fl, Ste. 402, San Francisco, CA 94103 415.593.4100
LarkCreekSteak opened on September 28, 2006 ushering in an innovative, lighter and unique twist to the American steakhouse, unveiling itself as a boutique approach to presenting timeless steakhouse classics blended seamlessly with clean, modern design and fresh iterations of old favorites. The result is a dining experience in which artisanally-grown, farm-fresh fare shares center stage with the finest USDA prime beef guests expect at a premier steakhouse. San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Michael Bauer wrote "The prime cuts of meat are superb, well marbled with a firm but tender texture, enhanced by being grilled over fruitwood and charcoal," and "the steaks taste like prime beef used to taste & when butchers bought sides of beef and let them age."

The menu offers a selection of steaks, as well as lighter seafood and vegetarian options. The restaurant is blanketed in soothing earth tones and hues of gold, bronze and taupe and the 10-seat exhibition kitchen counter space allows diners to view the open kitchen in an upscale yet relaxed atmosphere. The Larkspur Room offers private dining for up to 36 guests.

Yankee Pier^®
286 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur, CA 94939 415.924.7676
United Domestic Terminal, San Francisco Airport 630.821.8938
3593 Mount Diablo Boulevard, Lafayette, CA 94549 925.283.4100
The original Yankee Pier opened on October 24, 2000 in Larkspur as a cozy, casual drop-in-dining cafe in the style of a waterside New England seafood house just a few hundred feet away from The Lark Creek Inn. At 1,500 square feet, the restaurant is small — only 49 interior seats, a wisteria-covered front porch for 22 and a rear deck for 12. "Fresh" is the operative word here with seafood from both east and west coasts featured. Maine Lobster, Ipswich clams, Dungeness Crab Louie, creamy New England Clam Chowder and a daily selection of oysters and grilled fish are menu mainstays, in addition to such homemade desserts as Butterscotch Pudding and Lemon Meringue Pie. Prices are moderate and value high. Beer (bottled from both coasts plus a draft) and a selection of 25 all-American value-oriented wines are served, with most wines available by the glass. Ice-cold lemonade and bottled waters are also offered.

Inside, the place looks like it was created over the years with the evolution of the owner's new ideas. There are no rich surfaces — only colorful elements that the fisherman's brother who is a master carpenter and stays up with the times would have installed. The San Francisco Chronicle named Yankee Pier one of "Bay Area's Top 10 New Restaurants," and included it on the "Bay Area's Top 100 Restaurants" list.

The next Yankee Pier opened at the end of 2004 in San Francisco Airport's United Domestic Terminal. The group now welcomes travelers with the freshest seafood available, bringing a new meaning to their motto, "the freshest seafood from coast to coast." The popular Yankee Pier concept is envisioned by airport authorities as being the hallmark of their new food and beverage program at the airport. While dine-in business is robust, many travelers take food away for their flights.

Yankee Pier in Lafayette, number three, opened January 12, 2008. This next iteration of the Yankee Pier concept focuses less on the thematic design elements featured at Yankee Pier Santana Row and is just a little bit bigger to boot. Muted earthy colors prevail and design points are a bit finer reflecting the evolution of Yankee Pier from a “shack” to a restaurant as called for by our guests. Outdoor dining is again a feature; including street-side seating and a dining area featuring a sandbox. The “Wheelhouse” accommodates up to 32 for private dining. We are very excited about our second East Bay venture.

Fish Story^® on Napa's Riverfront
790 Main Street at Third, Napa, CA 94559 707.251.5600
Offering sustainable, seasonal, ocean-fresh seafood, Fish Story is Lark Creek Restaurant Group’s first entry into the Napa Valley dining scene. It debuted on September 20, 2010 to great critical and popular acclaim. Located downtown, with ample riverfront patio seating, Fish Story serves lunch and dinner daily, as well as Saturday and Sunday brunch. The menu features live Dungeness crab and live Maine lobster fresh from salt water tanks, fresh fish and shellfish all sourced in accordance with the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program. The menu also offers a variety of non-seafood items, as well as vegan and vegetarian selections. The diverse menu is accompanied by an extensive wine list from all over the world, including over 20 wines by the glass and even wines on tap.

Cupola^® Pizzeria
845 Market Street, 4th Fl, Ste. 400, San Francisco, CA 94103 415.896.5600
Cupola Pizzeria is Lark Creek Restaurant Group’s newest restaurant celebrating Italian cuisine, which opened in the Westfield San Francisco Centre June 2011. Cupola, which means “dome” in Italian, is located in the Restaurant Collection on the fourth floor of the Centre, under the iconic Emporium dome ceiling, right next to sister restaurant Lark Creek Steak. Cupola Pizzeria offers Neapolitan-style pizza, including whole wheat options, from a handcrafted Stefano Ferrara wood-burning pizza oven imported from Naples, Italy. The menu also features salads, housemade pastas, panini and desserts with an emphasis on local purveyors, as well as sustainable produce, fish and meat products. Seasonal, farm-to-table ngredients are sourced local purveyors and Farmer's Markets.

Lark Creek Blue
378 Santana Row, San Jose, CA 95128 408.244.1244
August 1,2012, Santana Row welcomed a new dining destination with the launch of Lark Creek Blue. The restaurant features ocean-fresh seafood, a selection of USDA Prime and grass-fed steaks and a variety of globally-inspired seasonal dishes under the direction of Chef Paul Bruno. Lark Creek Blue is located in the space formerly held by Yankee Pier, which had its last night of service on Sunday, July 15, 2012. The space was completely rennovated to offer casual, contemporary design with a circular raw bar, open kitchen and ample covered patio seating, perfect for warm summer days and nightwass.

Lark Creek Newport Beach at Fashion Island
OPENING SPRING 2013
957 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, CA 92660 949.640.6700
Lark Creek Restaurant Group's next property will open at Fashion Island, Newport Beach, in early 2013. The restaurant, Lark Creek Newport Beach, will be exclusive to Orange County and is set to open on the west side of Fashion Island near Nordstrom. Lark Creek Newport Beach Restaurant will serve chef-driven lunch and dinner menus featuring steaks and fish grilled over a wood fire, salads, sandwiches and pastas featuring local, seasonal ingredients. The restaurant will offer a bounty of wines from Napa Valley, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Santa Barbara, Mendocino and Sonoma counties, as well as international appellations. Artisanal cocktails from proprietary recipes with fresh-squeezed juices also will be featured.

Lark Creek Grill
Terminal 2 inside San Francisco International Airport 650.821.9315
Lark Creek Grill opened in April 2011. The 14th restaurant in the Lark Creek Restaurant Group, Lak Creek Grill offers classic American fare ranging from garden-fresh salads and sandwiches to sustainable seafood and sizzling steaks. All oerings are designed with the time-pressed air traveller in mind – fresh, healthy and portion-appropriate. It features an all-American wine list and full bar, and service is tailored to deliver efficiency without rushing. In addition to table service for up to 120, Lark Creek Grill offers Take Out.

Parcel 104^® at the Santa Clara Marriott
2700 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara, CA 95054 408.974.6104
Parcel 104 opened on December 5, 2001 as a partnership with the Santa Clara Marriott. Named after the agricultural plot on which it sits, Parcel 104 was previously a Bartlett Pear orchard, planted between 1880 and 1925, and operated by Dorcich Farms. The restaurant celebrates traditional American favorites with a contemporary twist and takes advantage of the Lark Creek Restaurant Group's relationships with local farmers, ranchers and fishermen in order to utilize the best local products available for their daily-changing menu.

To complement the regional American menu, Parcel 104 features an American-focused wine list highlighting many hard-to-find wines from small producers as well as many local Santa Cruz appellations. The 6,500 square-foot space, plus a large outdoor patio area, was designed by the Engstrom Design Group as a contemporary expression of American style. Rich surfacing materials such as leather, slate and a generous use of American hardwoods are complemented by harvest hues of pumpkin and grape accented by fresh springtime notes of grass green, daffodil and antique white. Dramatic lighting transforms the restaurant giving a different mood for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Three private dining rooms are available, including a chef's table for 12 diners and the soundproof Magnum Room for 40 with state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment. Glowing reviews have been garnered from the San Jose Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle.