TIM STANNARD
Founding Partner
As the Founding Partner of Bacchus Management Group, Tim Stannard oversees a handful of thriving restaurants including The Village Pub in Woodside, a growing number of Pizza Antica restaurants, The Mayfield Bakery & Cafe in Palo Alto, Spruce in San Francisco and the newly opened Spruce Park City, in partnership with the Waldorf=Astoria. Stannard and Bacchus will be opening one more restaurant concept in 2009, Café des Amis, a Parisian-style brasserie in San Francisco’s trendy Cow Hollow neighborhood. Recently, he also assisted in the launch of a coffee company named ROAST that is currently brewing exclusive blends served at all of Bacchus’ restaurants as well as a few other local restaurants.
In addition to his restaurant ventures, Stannard has produced single barrel Kentucky bourbon, Pinot Noir and German Riesling and will add Bordeaux to its portfolio in 2010 through partnerships with the likes of WillaKenzie Winery in the Willamette Valley, Joseph Rosch Winery in Germany and Julian Van Winkle, one of the most skilled U.S. distillers alive today.
Stannard’s recipe for success – four star food, wine and service – is gleaned from years of hard work and a deep passion for the business. He attracts and retains the best and the brightest culinary, wine, service and management professionals and gives them the opportunity to maximize their potential. Stannard’s dedication to exceptional table service is a trademark of his restaurants, as his staff understands that the spirit with which customers are engaged is just as important as the technical aspects of the service itself.
Stannard is a San Francisco native who spent the better part of his youth traveling the world and eating out with his father, an academic, and his mother, a restaurant industry executive. He often accompanied his mom to the workplace and from a young age found nothing more glamorous or exciting than a restaurant dining room. He followed his mother’s footsteps into the business, working as a line cook throughout his teens. A year later, he decided to try his hand at the front of the house working for Il Fornaio in San Francisco. At 20, Stannard was asked to manage Il Fornaio’s flagship retail bakery. With no previous management experience to speak of, it was a baptism of fire, and he spent the next year working 18 hours a day.
Burned out from running the bakery and vowing never to return to the food business, Stannard enrolled in UC Berkeley’s American Studies program. He lived a stone’s throw from Chez Panisse and developed an addiction hardly typical for a Berkeley coed, dining at the famed restaurant several times a week. This expensive little habit ate up his savings in a matter of months, and he found himself returning to the only work he knew. In order to feed his pricey palate, and pay his college tuition, Stannard took a job in San Francisco at Bix restaurant under the tutelage of Doug Biederbeck. Working a number of different positions in the house, from food runner to bartender, Bix is where Stannard learned how to run a restaurant, and where he fell back in love with the industry.
After college and seven years of managing Bix, Stannard began working as Director of Operations for the PlumpJack Management Group. During his tenure he helped turn the PlumpJack Cafe, the Balboa Café and the PlumpJack wine store into prosperous and acclaimed businesses. He also oversaw operations of PlumpJack Squaw Valley Inn and Restaurant and the opening of the PlumpJack Winery in the Napa Valley.
Eventually Stannard found himself ready to start his own venture, and when the opportunity to build a restaurant in Woodside arose, he went for it. Hence the birth of The Village Pub, a fine dining establishment that has been a success since the day it opened in 2001. The Village Pub was recently awarded one Michelin star in 2008. He has since added Pizza Antica, a collection of upscale pizzerias, and opened Spruce in August 2007, a stylish and sophisticated neighborhood restaurant, which was recognized by Esquire magazine as one of the Best New Restaurants in 2008. In 2009, Stannard continued to develop Bacchus’ resume with the opening of The Mayfield Bakery & Cafe in Palo Alto, Spruce Park City in Park City, Utah and the soon to be opened, Café des Amis in San Francisco.
