Kookez is the culmination of four generations of great home cooks, restaurant-Café-beanery owners, and farmers. From our family recipes, and dishes we've sampled across the USA, we've brought together some of the best and tastiest dishes around. Kookez was born from the best (to quote her fans) chocolate chip cookies ever made that were baked by Kookez proprietor, CEO and 'Cookie Queen,' Lynn Marie Presley. The original idea was to share these delights with the world. After all, these were highly desired rewards for her students achievements when she was principal at Woodland School, a private school in Portola Valley, California (a few miles from Stanford). Experimenting with other cookies like oatmeal-raising-coconut-walnut, or almond-gingersnaps, or chocolate-cherry, we would always think of what they went well with. Almond-gingersnaps went with Lynn's fiance's home made lemona ice cream, and so on.

The home kitchen became too small to produce a lot of cookies, so Lynn started looking for a bakery or baking service. While dining out one night in Noe Valley in San Francisco at a popular neighborhood Café called Miss Millie's, we got the idea to buy a restaurant to start baking cookies. "Wouldn't it be nice to have a place like this," we thought... only two blocks from home, lines out the door, and pretty good food. Something like this would be perfect we thought. Lynn's search for a Café/restaurant started in earnest and guess what... that exact restaurant was going to be for sale. Acting immediately, Lynn went to her saving account and made a bid for the place with fingers crossed. Happily, her offer was accepted and the first Kookez Café was born. Family and friends pitched in with Lynn to create Kookez menu while Lynn perfected more of Kookez Delights pastries, cookies, and cakes.

Remodeling began in February, 2006 with opening day on March 1, 2006. Lynn's dream of smiling young (and old) faces enjoying great food in a cozy setting topped off with yummy desserts was coming true. Along with her came son Deano with extensive experience in restaurant operations at Piatti's in Portland and Blake's Steak House in San Jose with his dream of delivering a great dining experience. Lynn's world-traveled, cuisine savvy fiance Bob, brought his love for cooking and dream to share it with old and new friends. And, Deano extends his love of food and family recipes to a new level at Kookez. When you dine with Deano and his team you are in for special flavors, special treatment and a special night. Say hello to Deano when you come in and ask him what's special for tonight (or just for you)!

When you open a Café or restaurant, for anyone who loves food, you promise a great dining experience along with the flavors. Everyone tells you how hard it is and how most places go broke very early. Well, when you love what you do and have a dream, you go that extra mile to make it come true. So, here's to all our family and friends we learned from and our invitation to you, "Welcome to Kookez."