James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur semifinalist Mark Stark is the executive chef and co-owner with his wife Terri of seven wildly successful restaurants in Sonoma County: Willi’s Wine Bar, Bird & The Bottle, Stark’s Steak & Seafood, and Monti’s in Santa Rosa, and Willi’s Seafood and Bravas Bar de Tapas in Healdsburg. Their flagship restaurant, Willi’s Wine Bar, reopened in 2019 after it was lost in the 2017 Tubbs Fire. Their newest restaurant, Grossman’s Noshery & Bar opened in March 2020. Grossman’s is a New York-style deli, bakery, and bar in the Hotel La Rose in Santa Rosa’s historic Railroad Square.
Mark is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York and honed his professional cooking skills in Washington DC and Seattle before settling in Sonoma County. He’s appeared in the PBS series Traveling Feast with Fine Cooking, and KQED’s Check Please! His inventive menus highlight a global melding of flavors with Asian, Mediterranean, French, Spanish and Californian influences.
From opening the original Willi’s Wine Bar in 2002 to Grossman’s in 2020, Mark and Terri’s restaurants have consistently earned top accolades and praise including San Francisco Chronicle Top 100 Bay Area Restaurant status for Willi’s Wine Bar and Bravas, and Michelin Bib Gourmand awards for Monti’s, Bravas, and Willi’s Wine Bar.
For more information about Stark Reality Restaurants, visit www.starkrestaurants.com.