George: The beginning
George Dyer, cofounder of South Pine Café, was raised on the east coast
in New Hampshire. He began restaurant work at the age of 15 as a waiter at a bed and
breakfast in Lyme, New Hampshire. George then worked his way through his senior year of high school
as a waiter at the Village Green in Hanover, New Hampshire. Upon graduation there were 2 choices,
the Army or California...so California it was.
Within a week of arriving in California, he landed a job as a dishwasher
at the Barge Inn, a waterfront restaurant in Alameda, Ca. Within just short of a year, he was
managing the kitchen and began attending the hotel and restaurant management program at the City
College of San Francisco, one of the top culinary programs in the U.S.
After graduation of the two year program, at 22 years of age, he co-created
Dyer Catering with partner Jerry Moriarty, an English Literature Major and go-getter. This
partnership evolved and led them to open Moriarty's Restaurant in the gourmet ghetto of North
Berkeley, Ca. After five years, with both businesses thriving, they sold and had a brief real estate
career, and in 1988 parted ways. Jerry Moriarty continued on to become a huge success in the
Real Estate business, now selling multi million dollar homes in Danville, Ca. As with any
partnership, they had their ups and downs but have kept in touch over the last 20 years.
In 1990, George went to work as the General Manager of the Montclair Egg
Shop in Montclair, California, a small district in the hills of Oakland. After 2 years, a hope
of buying the Egg Shop fell through and George and Suzie, his wife of 1 year, opened George and
Suzie's Café in El Sobrante, Ca., a small 40 seat Café in the middle of nowhere. With a total of
880 square feet, the likelihood of doing any more than squeezing out a decent living was a high
hope. They were wrong. After a few short months and some very long hours, a Contra Costa Times
restaurant review came out; business tripled within a few short weeks and lines were forming
around the tiny building with people from miles around to come and get our "Great Coffee, Real
Food".
After several years, George and Suzie decided to sell the restaurant to
their best employee and waitress, Tina Holtzclaw, who still owns it today, as Tina's Creekside
Café.
