Michael Dellar is co-founder, president and CEO of the $35,000,000, ten-restaurant Lark Creek Restaurant Group. Founded in 1988, the Group is dedicated to offering seasonal farm-fresh fare, extensive wine and spirits offerings, caring, professional service and excellent value.

The Group’s award-winning restaurants include: Michelin-star One Market Restaurant®, voted San Francisco’s “Best New Restaurant of 1993” and Lark Creek® Walnut Creek, opened in 1995. Yankee Pier®, a casual and sustainable seafood restaurant, opened in 2000 in Larkspur, 2002 at Santana Row in San Jose, 2005 at San Francisco International Airport, and 2008 in Lafayette. In partnership with Marriott Hotels, the Group operates Parcel 104® at the Santa Clara Marriott. Bradley Ogden™ restaurant at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas sports a Michelin star and was named Best New Restaurant of 2004 in the United States by the James Beard Foundation. LarkCreek®Steak opened in 2006 and was named by Esquire as one of the top 20 new restaurants in America for 2007 and by Gayot as one of the 10 Best Steakhouses in the U.S. The Tavern at Lark Creek®, a convivial gathering place offering a seasonally-driven menu with friendly pricing, opened in June 2009 in the space formerly occupied by the Group’s first restaurant, The Lark Creek Inn. Summer 2010 will see the opening of Fish Story in Napa on the river.

Dellar is Co-founder and Director of Red Tractor Café. He served as a Director of OpenTable.com and Gelato Classico, and participated in the sale of that company to Baskin Robbins. Dellar is also President of Dellar Restaurant Enterprises, Inc., a hospitality industry consulting firm.

He was named a James Beard Foundation Award Semi-Finalist in the category of “Outstanding Restaurateur” in 2010 and was nominated for Where Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. In 1994, Dellar was awarded the Restaurant Industry Achievement Award by the Anti-Defamation League. He acts as a Director for The Napa Valley Destination Council and has served as a Director of the University of San Francisco’s Hospitality Management Program, the Anti-Defamation League, and as a Trustee and member of the Executive Committee of COPIA, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts. He has been a Director of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, the California Restaurant Association, the Northern California Chapter of the American Institute of Wine and Food, the Oakland Symphony, the Film Institute of Northern California, and the Jewish Community Foundation. He is a member of the Restaurant Leadership Roundtable and the 100 Club of East Bay executives.

As Vice President and Partner of San Francisco’s Spectrum Foods, Inc. from 1984 to 1988, he played a significant role in helping to create and open seven new restaurants and seeing the company grow from $15 million to $40 million in annual sales after its sale to Saga Corporation in 1985.

Dellar first entered the restaurant field in 1979 as Director of Marketing for the Restaurant Operations Division for The Clorox Company in Oakland, which operated Emil Villa’s Hick’ry Pit. During his 14 year tenure at Clorox, he also acted as Associate Advertising Manager and Brand Manager for new products and existing brands, such as Clorox Bleach, with sales of over $300 million.

He received his MBA with honors in 1970 and his BS degree magna cum laude in 1969, both from the University of Southern California, and was elected to the academic honor societies of Beta Gamma Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi.

Dellar lives in Napa Valley with his wife, Leslye, where he grows Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.