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Cindy Pawlcyn Of Mustards Grill

By in 2000 - Volume 2

I recently had the pleasure of selling Cindy Pawlcyn the Miramonte in St. Helena which is currently undergoing major renovation.

“I never really wanted to do anything else,” says chef and restaurateur Cindy Pawlcyn. Her mother taught her to cook at an early age, but she said that her eyes opened to a new world of possibilities when a friend showed her how to cook Mexican food. It was simple and fun and quite different from anything she’d eaten growing up in Minnesota. By the time she was in high school, Cindy was working five nights a week for a local catering company and taking cooking classes from a Cordon Bleu chef.

After earning her Restaurant Management degree at the University of Wisconsin, she traveled to Paris to study at La Varenne and Cordon Bleu. Back in the mid-West, she worked as a sous-chef at several Chicago restaurants, including the renowned Pump Room, before moving to the Napa Valley. Cindy was the opening chef at Meadowood, then worked under Bruce le Favour at Rose and le Favour before opening her own restaurant, Mustards Grill, in 1983. Caroline Bates, writing in Gourmet, said at the time, “What makes Mustards heads above most of its counterparts is Cindy Pawlcyn.”

Simplicity and fun seem to be two of Cindy’s watchwords. As executive chef and founder of a dozen restaurants, including Fog City Diner, Bix, Roti, Rio Grill, and the Buckeye Roadhouse, she is often credited with reinventing American food in a playful setting. Her excitement and enthusiasm for her work are unmistakable.

Cindy is an inductee of Who’s Who of Cooking in America. She has been twice nominated for the James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef in California, is the recipient of the Robert Mondavi Award for Culinary Excellence, and the Fine Beverage and Food Federations Career Achievement Award. The Bay Area looks forward to her new St. Helena culinary venture.

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About The Author
Steven Zimmerman, CBI, M&AMI, CBB, FIBBA

Steve is the Founder, Principal Broker and Chief Executive Officer of Restaurant Realty Company. Steve has personally sold/leased over 1,000 restaurant, bar and/or nightclub businesses and many related commercial buildings totaling 2+ million square feet of commercial space, collaborated with over 2,000 clients and completed over 3,000 valuations since 1996.His real estate experience also includes sales, acquisitions, management and ownership of numerous properties throughout California including restaurants, hotels, apartment buildings, single family houses, an office building and a multi-use retail building. Steve is also the author of Restaurant Dealmaker – An Insider’s Trade Secrets for Buying a Restaurant, Bar or Club available on Amazon. Prior to starting Restaurant Realty Company Steve had over 20 years of restaurant experience and was President and Chief Executive officer of Zim’s Restaurants, which was one of the largest privately owned restaurant chains in the San Francisco Bay Area. READ FULL BIO | HIRE EXPERT WITNESS - LEARN MORE