The Biz Beat: Backyard Café is a brunch oasis in Sunnyvale

The Treehouse Hotel Silicon Valley in Sunnyvale has an oasis-like otherworldliness that belies its location, nestled beside State Route 237 and neighbored by a cluster of Google office buildings. 

The hotel’s lobby might be your first clue that you are somewhere else entirely, with an artificial-moss-and-flower-covered Volkswagen Beetle parked perfectly in the middle of the waiting area. 

A few steps away, adjoining a swimming pool, the Backyard Café cultivates the same quirkiness, with a rustic wooden counter that gives way to a dining area that is part power-brunch ready, part mismatched furniture and colorful pillows.

“We really leaned into the colorfulness, the coziness,” Chef Scott Koranda told San José Spotlight. “We bring the kind of whimsy and fun that invites families. It’s like the cool hip aunt’s house that you got to hang out in.”

Koranda’s background is perhaps just as unexpected. Growing up in Iowa, his first job was in the corn fields at 12. In his early 20s, he bought and sold produce through a local cooperative. 

“I got really familiar with produce through that,” he said. “Learning how to cook and how those flavors worked kind of came second to knowing the raw ingredient first. We are lucky to be in an area with so much abundance, and I still go to the farmers market whenever I can.”

As a chef, Koranda “bopped around” various New York City restaurants before connecting with Starwood Hotels, Treehouse’s parent company, at the restaurant at 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, which specialized in a farm-to-table concept using local vendors and seasonal produce, similar to his offerings at Backyard Café.

The cafe is one of three food venues at Treehouse, with Top Chef and Iron Chef winner Stephanie Izard’s Valley Goat restaurant, specializing in small plates and shareables, being the largest. There is also the Beer Garden, with 30 beers on tap, a wood-fired pizza oven and a menu focused on picnic-table foods. 

But the Treehouse day begins at Backyard, and breakfast and lunch can be as simple as one of the takeaways available at the front counter.

These include the Bay Parfait, made with Straus Family Creamery Greek yogurt, fresh berries, Nuthouse granola and goji berries, Overnight Oats with chia seeds, coconut, cacao nibs and berries, or the Red Quinoa Salad Bowl with baby arugula, butternut squash and black beans, topped with a lemon tahini Green Goddess dressing.

The “really cool aunt” theme comes through in one of the more popular dishes, the buttermilk waffle — crisp on the outside, tender within, topped with fresh berries and served with pure maple syrup.

Koranda’s favorite breakfast item on the regular menu is the Everything Nice Bagel Tartine made with Tsar Nicoulai smoked sturgeon spread, veggies, sunflower sprouts and pickled shallots on a sprouted wheat bagel.

“It’s a take on an East Coast-style smoked fish pate,” he said, “As a byproduct of producing caviar, Tsar Nicoulai ends up with a lot of sturgeon, the fish that produces it. They smoke it, and we turn that into a spreadable pate to use for our tartines.”

The cafe is focused on quick turnaround, Koranda said, befitting the kitchen’s compact space and the simple processes used to produce the food. 

“People generally do not want to wait a long time for breakfast or lunch,” he said. “So the menu is engineered to include good, fresh ingredients but with a quick turnaround.”

Simple processes, however, do not mean the food lacks complexity, as seen in the Backyard Egg Sandwich, an egg omelet topped with Cooper cheese and a sriracha aioli served on herb focaccia with optional Applewood smoked bacon or avocado.

There is also full menu of coffees, teas and pressed juices, along with an impressive selection of wines, but Kerri Nunes, assistant director of food and beverage, is particularly enthusiastic about the house matcha offerings.

“People love something a little bit different,” she told San José Spotlight. “Matcha is having a moment, and we found that as our niche. We host a master class in making matcha every month or so, which has been a fun experience and a real draw.”

Many of the drinks on the menu are based on ideas from team members that seemed worth exploring, such as the Dot Cake matcha, based on a viral TikTok and Instagram trend.

“We made a drink in the same theme,” Nunes said. “It’s a brown sugar latte with a cake batter top and then topped with sprinkles that we can do as an espresso or a matcha latte. It has really become a favorite with everyone.”

That “everyone,” according to Nunes, includes a considerable number of locals as well as hotel guests. Part of this is fueled by the neighborhood-friendly atmosphere, with event tie-ins with the beer garden and classes in crafts like spoon-carving taking place in the hours after the cafe closes. 

But having consistently great menus doesn’t hurt, of course, and Koranda said that Starwood, as a brand, puts food and beverage on a pedestal.

“In a lot of hotels, what is offered as food tends to be amenities,” he said. “But here, we are allowed a lot of creativity in what we offer. It is a really great blank slate.”

Contact Robert Eliason at [email protected].

Editor’s Note: The Biz Beat is a series highlighting local small businesses and restaurants in Silicon Valley. Know a business you’d like to see featured? Let us know at [email protected].