Palo Alto fine dining destination Bird Dog is grilling its final avocados on Friday. The restaurant is closing just as its 10-year lease comes to an end, owners Robbie and Emily Wilson announced on Instagram on Thursday.
“It’s mixed emotions for sure,” Robbie told SFGATE. “We kind of consider this a retirement of sorts, not so much that we’re calling it quits. The lease is coming to an end and we have some exciting new projects we’ve already started working on. It seemed like, let’s go out on our terms and just tackle 2025 recalibrated.”
Before opening Bird Dog, Robbie Wilson cooked at Yountville’s French Laundry and New York’s Nobu. He and Emily then reopened the historic Mattei’s Tavern in Santa Barbara County. The couple moved to the Peninsula and opened Bird Dog in Palo Alto in 2015, serving a Californian-Japanese menu of crudo and creative preparations of vegetables. The wood-grilled avocado with wasabi mousse and yuzu ponzu was their most famous dish…