Michael Dellar

Co-Founder, President & CEO

Michael Dellar is Co-founder, President and CEO of the $50,000,000, 14-property Lark Creek® Restaurant Group. Founded in 1989, the Group is dedicated to offering seasonal farm-fresh fare, extensive wine and spirits offerings, caring, professional service and excellent value.

The Group’s award-winning restaurants include: The Tavern at Lark Creek, a convivial gathering place offering a seasonally-driven menu with friendly pricing, opened in June 2009 in the space formerly occupied by the Group’s first restaurant, The Lark Creek Inn. Michelin-star One Market® Restaurant, voted San Francisco’s “Best New Restaurant of 1993” and Lark Creek Walnut Creek, opened in 1995. Yankee Pier®, a casual and sustainable seafood restaurant, opened in 2000 in Larkspur, 2002 at Santana Row in San Jose, 2005 at San Francisco International Airport, and 2008 in Lafayette. In partnership with Marriott Hotels, the Group operates Parcel 104® at the Santa Clara Marriott. LarkCreekSteak opened in 2006 and was named by Esquire as one of the top 20 new restaurants in America for 2007 and by Gayot as one of the 10 Best Steakhouses in the U.S. Summer 2010 saw the opening of Fish Story® in Napa on the river, Cupola®, an artisan pizzeria, opened at the Westfield San Francisco Centre in 2011, as did Lark Creek Grill at San Francisco International Airport. May of 2012 marked the unveiling of Wine & Wall, a retail wine and art space serving small plates from neighboring One Market Restaurant, and transforming into a private dining venue at night. In August 2012, Lark Creek Blue opened in the space previously occupied by Yankee Pier Santana Row in San Jose. And last but not least, the newest addition to the group: Lark Creek Newport Beach at Fashion Island, which opened August 2013.

Previously, Dellar served as an Executive of San Francisco based Spectrum Foods, Inc. and the The Clorox Company in Oakland. He was a founding Director of OpenTable.com and was a Director of Gelato Classico, and participated in the sale of that company to Baskin Robbins and Co-founder of Red Tractor Café, Inc. Dellar is also President of Dellar Restaurant Enterprises, Inc., a hospitality industry consulting firm.

He was named a James Beard Foundation Award Semi-Finalist in the category of “Outstanding Restaurateur” in 2010 and was nominated for Where Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. In 1994, Dellar was awarded the Restaurant Industry Achievement Award by the Anti-Defamation League. He acts as a Director for The Napa Valley Destination Council and as a member of the West Coast Board of Advisors to Culintro. Dellar served as a Director of the University of San Francisco’s Hospitality Management Program, the Anti-Defamation League, and as a Trustee and member of the Executive Committee of COPIA, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts. He has been a Director of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, the California Restaurant Association, the Northern California Chapter of the American Institute of Wine and Food, the Oakland Symphony, and the Film Institute of Northern California. He is a member of the Restaurant Leadership Roundtable and the 100 Club of East Bay executives.

He received his MBA with honors in 1970 and his BS degree magna cum laude in 1969, both from the University of Southern California, and was elected to the academic honor societies of Beta Gamma Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi.

Dellar lives in Napa Valley with his wife, Leslye, where he grows Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.