Their kids took over this Bay Area diner chain of 37 years. Soup is still $7. |
As cars speed toward BART and Highway 680 on Ygnacio Valley Road in Walnut Creek, slowing down to pull into the Buttercup Diner and Bar’s parking lot can feel ill-advised, even dangerous. But that’s exactly what you should do.
In a suburb increasingly known for high prices and hyped openings, the family-owned restaurant of nearly four decades is like a warm hug for the restaurant-weary: an off-the-beaten-path spot that serves celebrity-approved pies and pancakes and a cup of scratch-made soup for $7.
David and Debbie Shahvar started Buttercup 37 years ago as a homey restaurant offering generous American dishes, which are made using ingredients from local purveyors whenever possible. And they have not wavered from that mission.
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Now, as the family’s second generation takes over the Bay Area mini-chain, which has locations in Concord, Vallejo and Oakland and counts Joe Biden and Steph Curry among its customers, they are honoring the soul of the restaurant while bringing Buttercup into 2026.
The exterior of the Buttercup Diner and Bar in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Dec. 12, 2025.
The eggs Benedict at the Buttercup Diner and Bar in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Dec. 12, 2025.
Customers dine at the Buttercup Diner and Bar in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Dec. 12, 2025.
I meet the Shahvars — David, Debbie, Jessica, Jonathan and Benjamin — on a brisk Friday that has me pining for a bowl of their matzo ball soup. They are a tight-knit, opinionated bunch. They passionately debate old menu items — do not even mention the beefy rice soup or Spanish omelet sauce — and make an effort to eat lunch together every day.
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David, an Iranian Jewish immigrant and one of seven kids, was working in corporate restaurant management when he met Debbie at a restaurant in 1980. Debbie was waiting tables, working her way through college. He was there for a meeting with the manager.
“They asked me to wait on him, and I spilled dinner in his lap,” Debbie recalled. “It was prime rib, and it was just the juice, but it was a brand-new suit, which I found out later.”
If she hadn’t done it, David wouldn’t have looked up and seen “this young lady” with a Star of David around her neck, he said, smiling at his wife.
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From left, the family of Benjamin Shahvar, Debbie Shahvar, Jonathan Shahvar, David Shahvar and Jessica Shahvar stand inside the Buttercup Diner and Bar in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Dec. 12, 2025.
The two married and started a family. At the time, David was working as a district manager for El Torito. “We had two little rambunctious boys at the time and couldn’t really take our kids there,” Debbie Shahvar said.
It got them thinking about opening a restaurant of own restaurant, a place with “quality food, like fresh fish,” she said.
“At the time, it was either high-end restaurants or fast-food, and those aren’t really places you can take kids,” she said. “The restaurants that were family-style, the food was frozen, and I didn’t want to do that........