Dennis Leary is a

restaurateur A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspec ...

and

chef A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitche ...

based in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. Leary owns and operates six food and beverage businesses in the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

area, along with a forty-acre farm in

Capay Valley Capay Valley is a mostly rural valley northwest of Sacramento in Yolo County, California, United States. It lies east of Blue Ridge and west of the Capay Hills. Geography Cache Creek flows through the valley. California State Route 16 crosses ...

called Andromeda Farm. The six restaurants include Rx, Café Terminus, Natoma Cabana, Golden West, House of Shields, and the Sentinel.

Early life and education

Dennis Leary began his professional culinary career at the age of 14 as a dishwasher at The Red Lion Inn in his hometown of

Cohasset, Massachusetts Cohasset is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 8,381. History Cohasset was inhabited for thousands of years by Native Americans prior to European colonization, from whom English c ...

. By the time he graduated high school he had moved on to become a line cook. Leary attended

Wheaton College (Massachusetts) Wheaton College is a private liberal arts college in Norton, Massachusetts. Wheaton was founded in 1834 as a female seminary. The trustees officially changed the name of the Wheaton Female Seminary to Wheaton College in 1912 after receiving a ...

and studied English literature. At

, he joined the academic honor society

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

. While attending college, he worked at both Kimball's, also in Cohasset, and at the

Parker House Hotel Parker may refer to: Persons * Parker (given name) * Parker (surname) Places Place names in the United States *Parker, Arizona *Parker, Colorado * Parker, Florida * Parker, Idaho * Parker, Kansas * Parker, Missouri * Parker, North Carolina *Park ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Career

After college, Leary moved on to line cook positions at the Boulders Resort in Scottsdale and at the Carmel Valley Ranch in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It was then that Leary met Alain Rondelli, who hired him to work as

pastry chef A pastry chef or pâtissier (; the French female version of the word is pâtissière ), is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods. They are employed in large hotels, bi ...

at his restaurant in

. A year later Dennis started at

Drew Nieporent Drew Nieporent is an American restaurateur based in New York City. His company Myriad Restaurant Group owns and operates numerous restaurants. Nieporent's Nobu and Nobu London both earned two Michelin stars. The restaurant's partners are celebrit ...

's Rubicon as

sous chef A sous-chef is a chef who is second in command in a kitchen; the person ranking next after the head chef, usually the more hands on manager with regards to training staff and organising the kitchen. Duties and functions The sous-chef has many re ...

and became

executive chef A chef de cuisine (, French for ''head of kitchen'') or head chef is a chef that leads and manages the kitchen and chefs of a restaurant or hotel. A chef patron (feminine form ''chef patronne'') (French for ''boss chef'') or executive chef is ...

. Leary served as executive chef for six years before moving on to start his own restaurant. In 2005, Leary started his own

restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

and

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

called Canteen. Located in the Commodore Hotel, Leary was the sole chef and owner of the 20-seat restaurant. In 2008 Leary partnered with Eric Passetti and opened The Sentinel, a sandwich shop in downtown

. The Sentinel became known for its corned beef sandwich with Russian dressing. The two also opened The Golden West, serving breakfast and lunch on weekdays. During 2009, Leary and Passetti joined the bar business and took over the lease of the House of Shields in

SoMa Soma may refer to: Businesses and brands * SOMA (architects), a New York–based firm of architects * Soma (company), a company that designs eco-friendly water filtration systems * SOMA Fabrications, a builder of bicycle frames and other bicycle ...

. The House of Shields has been in existence since 1908, and Leary refurbished the space to fix the vintage light fixtures, statues, and floors. In July 2014 Leary opened up Natoma Cabana with Passetti on Natoma Street. Natoma Cabana is set in a former blacksmith's shop, with the interior of the bar dating back to 1913. Leary commissioned local graffiti artist, Ian Ross, to design the front of Natoma Cabana. Dennis Leary reopened the location of Trocadero Club as RX in November 2014. Rx is a

craft cocktail The craft cocktail movement is a social movement spurred by the cocktail renaissance, a period of time in the 21st century characterized by a revival and re-prioritization of traditional recipes and methods in the bar industry. History The cockta ...

bar in the Tenderloin. The name comes from the

prohibition era Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacturing, manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption ...

, when a doctor's prescription was one's only way to legally access liquor.

Awards

*2014 – Eater Awards: Empire Builder

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leary, Dennis American male chefs People from the San Francisco Bay Area Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Wheaton College (Massachusetts) alumni People from Cohasset, Massachusetts