Here is a memory>
Posted on 12/20/2017 10:01:18 AM PST by nickcarraway
It’s time to carve out room for a new exhibit on the history of Silicon Valley.
With two objects — a stock ticker tape that highlighted the high-tech industry’s successes and a stained-glass image of a lion holding a compass — you can tell the story of a legendary Sunnyvale restaurant. It’s one that has stood witness to thousands of power-broker discussions, hiring interviews, IPO parties — and multimillion-dollar deals.
After 35 years, the Lion & Compass will close this Friday, and the corner where its dining rooms, imported English bar and tropical garden now sit will become high-density housing.
Many of the biggest names in the technology world met here and strategized here over Asian-influenced California cuisine: Intel’s Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, Andy Grove and Craig Barrett; industry pioneers Carver Mead and Federico Faggin; Adam Osborne, the portable computer innovator; Jerry Sanders of Advanced Micro Devices; Cypress Semiconductor’s T.J. Rodgers; Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems; Cisco’s John Chambers. And, of course, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, a former co-owner of the restaurant who left this business in the 1990s, moving on to other ventures.
“I would like this to be remembered as a kind of clubhouse for the movers and shakers of Silicon Valley in the 1980s and 1990s,” said current owner Robert Nino, recalling that a New York Times reporter in 1984 drew an impressive parallel. “The Lion and Compass is to the computer world what Sardi’s is to New York’s theater district.”
Certainly, this North Fair Oaks Avenue restaurant has seen its share of drama too — especially in the weeks since the shutdown was announced. It’s been so busy that Nino has put on an apron and become the kitchen’s expediter while longtime maitre d’ and manager Kim Martin has taken to
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Been there done that.
To be replaced by a Waffle House.
I gave it a try - it was overpriced crap, with a low-class plain interior.
Read the story and comments (so you don’t have to) to find out why it’s closing if it’s so great! Of course, the answer is...liberals!
Have eaten there many times. Great place. Yet another one falls into Sunnyvale history. All of Wolfe road from 101 to the dumps is apartments wall to wall.
I remember that place. Was nice.
Its not as if they are talking about Walker’s Wagon Wheel.
"“Before its demolition in 2003, the Wagon Wheel was located in Mountain View near the intersection of Middlefield and Whisman,” the museum reports in the latest issue of The Byte, a publication for donors to the museum. “During the 1970s and 1980s, many of the top engineers from Fairchild, National and other companies would meet there to drink and talk about the problems they faced in manufacturing and selling semiconductors. It was an important meeting place where even the fiercest competitors gathered and exchanged ideas.”
Many restaurants in the Bay Area are closing because of the minimum wage.
WAITER: Here’s your $25 hamburger sir, ketchup will be an extra $5.
I finally remember it.
Drove by it often but never stopped in.
I always did Power Breakfast at “Original Pancake House” in Cupertino.
The one on DeAnza? It’s closed now.
Hi-techy deals were also done in the Wagon Wheel Bar & Grill, on Middlefield Dr in Mountain View.
When I left the area in 2000, it had become a casino....the only casino in a residential area in California.
Buddy of mine was in and out of there during the 70s and 80s. The Wheels are now at the building used as the small local museum — he drove me by there. The Cromemco, Applied, Fairchild and all the Semiconductor people hung out there.
His comment was, this and Palo Alto is WHERE it all was born in talking about the history of Silicon Valley.
National eventually built their first building just behind the leased buildings. I went on to work at Applied, Signetics, National again, Harris in Florida and wound up retiring from Texas Instruments in Houston.
National bought Fairchild and Texas Instruments bought National...they now own all those early semiconductor patents of Faircjild and National.
I often drank with Robert Widlar in those early days.
I grew up in southern Sunnyvale and that Pancake House on De Anza Blvd. was a favorite. Their basic pancake (six on the plate) was very good. I will only go back to CA one more time, for the Dad’s funeral some day. It’s a bizarre place now, like some foreign economic zone. Not really part of USA culturally. Very intolerant people there especially in the corporate world let alone the government sector.
I can’t imagine trying to raise kids there to actually grow up to be ... adults. Must be tough.
I also used to dance a lot one year at the Starlite Ballroom but that I heard closed too.
Here is a memory>
Oh yeah. Thanks.
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