Words by Jennifer Jory
At the Dutch Goose, the floors are covered in peanut shells and the walls with carved initials. This long-running hangout in West Menlo Park has welcomed the neighborhood for nearly 60 years. They’re still serving deviled eggs made from the same recipe that’s been on the menu since 1966. The locals like it that way. This unassuming family-owned eatery serves as a backdrop for Silicon Valley lore, from its many famous patrons to the test launch of Pong, the first commercially successful video game.
While the deviled egg recipe remains a secret, perhaps the real secret sauce is the connection people feel when they take a seat at “the Goose.” “You can come into the Dutch Goose alone and you will see buddies or you’ll meet buddies,” owner Greg Stern promises. “You have this community when you are at the Dutch Goose. Everybody comes together and gets along,” he says. Greg believes the restaurant’s camaraderie is its staying power, in contrast to other burger purveyors that are moving to automated ordering. “At Shake Shack or McDonald’s, you’re met with a kiosk or a QR code menu,” Greg laments. “That sense of community is lost.” The Goose is a local fixture with history—its logo was made by the same designer who created the Grateful Dead’s.
A Menlo Park native, Greg seized on the opportunity to buy the Dutch Goose during a career pivot that took him from stockbroker to restauranteur. “It was the year 2000 and I was working at Morgan Stanley, while the market was crashing,” he recalls. “I was having a burger with my dad and I told him I was miserable.” The conversation turned to talk that the Dutch Goose might close down or be demolished and Greg pondered rescuing the time-honored watering hole. “I feel like these mom-and-pop restaurants are a dying breed,” he says. A business entrepreneurship graduate from the University of Southern California, Greg worked on a deal that took several years to complete. Since then, he hasn’t looked back. “You don’t go into the restaurant industry because you think you’re going to make a lot of money,” Greg explains. “But what you do get is that sense of community that I had never really experienced before. When you’re part of this community, it is better than any financial gain I’ve ever received. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
From contractors and students to venture capitalists and Little League teams, the Goose’s customer base is diverse and loyal. Patrons have celebrated milestones at the Goose, from their first baseball team win in the 1970s to their 40-year high school reunion. Stanford Business School hosts regular meetings at the Dutch Goose. For many years, Stanford University’s bus had a regular stop at the restaurant. “We are so fortunate, with 20 schools in a two-mile radius of us,” Greg points out. “We host a lot of reunions.” The Goose also features a trivia night on Thursdays and a chalk board where customers can write the name of a friend for whom they have bought a drink in advance.
Greg is as local as it gets. He graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School and is raising his three young boys in his hometown with his wife Angela, a restaurant veteran herself. Naturally, they enjoy engaging with the community. “We’ve been going through T-ball and all the way up through Little League,” explains Greg. “We’ll sponsor a team, and then they’ll come in and have a team party.” Along with supporting local youth sports, the Dutch Goose helps provide hundreds of college sponsorships and mentoring programs through the Peninsula College Fund.
When it comes to well-known customers, the Dutch Goose touts a long list that includes former Vice President Al Gore, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and the San Francisco Giants’ J.T. Snow. Greg cites former Stanford quarterback and Super Bowl champion Jim Plunkett as one of the restaurant’s most esteemed regulars. “Jim Plunkett is a staple at the Goose,” he says. “He is among the most humble guys I have ever met. His daughters were both bartenders at the Goose.” One of Greg’s most memorable moments includes a visit from Seal Team 6 members who stopped in at the Goose for burgers shortly after their successful take-down of Osama bin Laden. “That was the most star-struck I have ever been,” beams Greg. “They were pretty remarkable and first secured the location before stepping in the door.”
Customers come for the first-rate burgers and beer, ample draft selections and an outdoor bar called the Duck Blind. Those who dine on the patio will find a wall display called the “Beer Tap Graveyard,” which features all the tap tags of dearly departed brews that have been retired.
Over the years, Greg’s menu has expanded to include healthier options like salads, cauliflower-crust pizza and garden burgers. He stresses that changing the menu is not something done lightly. “People want their hometown watering hole to be the same and don’t like change,” he says. “You make a change and customers tell you immediately. When we switched the potato chips to french fries, people told me I was making a big mistake.”
The spicy deviled eggs remain the most labor-intensive item on the menu. “Someone calls every year to get the recipe and we tell them it is just the original chicken,” he laughs. “It’s a lot of time cracking eggs and making the batter. It takes about two hours every morning.” Greg recently introduced milkshakes for the first time. “You have to do this slowly,” he notes. “The neighborhood tells you when you are going off the rails.”
At the Dutch Goose, no one is rushing you out the door. “In the restaurant industry, you want to turn tables, that’s how you make money,” says Greg. “But that is not the case at the Goose. You want to come in, hang out and enjoy everyone’s company.” In fact, plenty of local customers consider the restaurant a second home. “It is like going to church,” Greg reflects. “You know what to expect and it’s one of the few things in life that doesn’t change.”