The Restaurant Where Steve Jobs Unknowingly Ate His Father's Food

Steve Jobs was adopted as an infant in 1955. His biological father, Abdulfattah "John" Jandali, was a Syrian immigrant and political science PhD who had a brief relationship with Jobs' biological mother, Joanne Schieble. Under pressure from her father, who disapproved of the relationship, Schieble gave the baby up for adoption.

Decades later, Jandali became the manager and part-owner of a popular Mediterranean restaurant in Sacramento called Byblos. By this time, Jobs was already a household name as the co-founder of Apple.

Jobs ate at Byblos on several occasions. He and Jandali spoke casually, as any restaurateur would with a regular customer. Neither man had any idea they were related.

It was only after Jobs began searching for his biological mother in the early 1980s that the connection was revealed. When journalist Mona Simpson — who turned out to be Jobs' biological sister — tracked down their mother Joanne, she learned about Jandali. Simpson told Jobs, who was stunned to realize he'd been eating at his own father's restaurant.

Despite knowing the truth, Jobs never pursued a relationship with Jandali. He reportedly felt abandoned and had no interest in reconnecting. Jandali, speaking to the press years later, expressed regret and said he would have loved to have known his son. "I used to tell him 'come back and see me sometime and the meal's on me,'" Jandali recalled. "He was a great tipper."

The quote became one of the most poignant footnotes in Silicon Valley history — a father who didn't know he was comping meals for the son he gave up.