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We’ve all seen this trope in movies: As mourning family members sob into handkerchiefs and pay respects by the casket, the person who’s supposed to be inside it shows up, alive and well.
Jamis MacNiven said that’s the exact energy he wants to match at the annual History Makers event slated for Sept. 22, where he will be honored as San Mateo County’s 2023 History Maker.
“Listen, I’m in perfect health,” the Woodside resident said in an interview. “But who hasn’t fantasized about attending his own funeral? Here is everybody paying to come to my funeral, and I get to talk at it. … That just makes it all rather perfect.”
The History Makers dinner is not actually a funeral, but it is something of a celebration of life – a life that has left an indelible mark on the tech industry and earned MacNiven the unofficial title of Silicon Valley’s mayor.
MacNiven is the founder of Buck’s of Woodside, a restaurant even better-known for bringing together tech innovators and venture capitalists than it is for its pancakes.
“He has watched as firms such as Hotmail, eBay, Netscape, PayPal and Tesla were born over discussions at his establishment,” the San Mateo County Historical Association, which hosts the annual dinner, wrote of MacNiven.
Historical Association President Mitch Postel said choosing MacNiven as this year’s History Maker was an easy choice. If Silicon Valley were a wheel, MacNiven and Buck’s would be the grease.
“When you think about the Silicon Valley and the creativity that's necessary to create these businesses that have basically changed the world, you have to have places where people can meet and have those very fertile meetings,” Postel said. “He has been right in the middle of all that. And it's not just that he provided the space, but he was a character of Silicon Valley.”
For MacNiven, Buck’s is “an art gallery full of amazing people that happens to serve food.” The entire restaurant is adorned with quirky relics, from a Russian spacesuit to a 110-foot mural that wraps around the restaurant. MacNiven said his favorite piece that he’s collected for the restaurant is a pictograph of a sawfish shark.
“It’s painted by some South Sea islanders who tell this story,” MacNiven said. “It’s 4 feet long and it’s got all these pictures of a trip they took through the South Seas. My grandfather got it from Jack London’s widow’s estate back in the '50s.”
It’s these little slices of history that make Buck’s such a memorable place to visit, combined with the knowledge that some of the biggest names in tech got their start around the diner’s no-fuss tables.
Just about when COVID-19 hit, MacNiven decided it was time to pass the family business down to his sons, freeing up time for him to try out other ventures that fit right in with MacNiven’s eccentric personality.
“I helped found a clinic in Mexico where we’re treating Navy Seals with some very esoteric psychedelics for PTSD and trauma,” MacNiven said. “I’m executive producing a film about that with Participant Media, who did ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’ So I have the time to do these other creative things that I wouldn’t have had time for if I was still running Buck’s.”
Attendees at this year’s History Makers dinner will have a chance to learn more about MacNiven’s latest adventures as well as his past ones. The event will be held Friday, Sept. 22, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame, and tickets can be purchased from the San Mateo County Historical Association’s website.
The event will start with a cocktail reception followed by dinner, a brief live auction and “a special film created by the Historical Association describing the life and times of Mr. MacNiven,” the event page states.
Historical Association President Postel said the event is known to sell out from time to time, so he encouraged the community to get their tickets as soon as possible. Proceeds from the event help to fund the Association’s work.
