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After Friday night’s dinner service, Bird Dog in downtown Palo Alto is officially closed.
The fine-dining restaurant posted to its Instagram on Thursday that its last day of service would be Friday, Sept. 27. While the fine-dining restaurant is closing, that doesn’t mean chef-owner Robbie Wilson is leaving the fine-dining scene. In fact, he already has new projects underway.
“We had a handful of amazing opportunities to do some really cool new projects, and I think it just came to the point after 10 years, we just wanted to tackle those, and put all of our interest and effort toward a new beginning,” Wilson said. “We’re certainly thankful and enjoyed our time, and definitely could have kept going, but at this point, it was just about doing something new and recalibrating.”
While Wilson wouldn’t yet reveal the locations of these projects, he did say that “one (project) potentially will be scalable, the other one’s fine dining, and the other one is a complete pivot.” These projects are likely to be finalized in 2025, according to Bird Dog’s Instagram post. None of the projects will be similar to Bird Dog, and “the only semblance of any Bird-Dog-ness will be a grilled avocado,” Wilson said.
Wilson and his wife, Emily Perry Wilson, opened Bird Dog in late 2015 in the former location of Mandarin Gourmet in downtown Palo Alto. The restaurant served modern Californian and Japanese cuisine. Wilson had culinary training in France and worked at The French Laundry in Yountville and Nobu in New York City before revamping Mattei’s Tavern in Santa Barbara County with his wife in 2013. The choice to close Bird Dog was a long time coming and conveniently aligned with the end of Bird Dog’s 10-year lease, Wilson said.
“To commit another 10-year lease, these next projects are going to take so much of our time, and out of respect for our guests and our team, how much could we really invest in terms of time and energy on Bird Dog?” he said.
The inspiration behind the name Bird Dog was “to seek and pursue with dog determination,” Wilson said, in reference to his and his wife’s goal-oriented approach to projects. The restaurant was listed on the 50 Best Discovery list and was in the Michelin Guide for many years (it lost its Michelin Recommended status just this year). Wilson said that while he was very appreciative of these accolades, it was never his end goal.
“Our goal from the beginning was we wanted to be part of the conversation of the best restaurants on the Peninsula,” he said. “That was the goal we set forth, and I think we achieved that.”
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