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 of a popular Mediterranean restaurant in Silicon Valley, near San Jose. By this time, Jobs was already a household name as the co-founder of Apple.

Jobs ate at the restaurant once or twice. He and Jandali spoke briefly — a handshake, the kind of casual exchange any restaurateur would have with a customer. Neither man had any idea they were related.

It was only after Jobs began searching for his biological mother in the mid-1980s that the connection was revealed. Through Joanne, he learned he had a biological sister — novelist Mona Simpson. Jobs and Mona formed a close bond. Mona eventually tracked down Jandali, who was by then managing a smaller establishment in Sacramento.

During that meeting, Jandali — not knowing Mona was his daughter — casually boasted about his previous restaurant: "Everybody used to come there. Even Steve Jobs used to eat there. Yeah, he was a great tipper."

Mona reported this back to Jobs, who was stunned. The man he'd shaken hands with at that restaurant was his biological father.

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. The "great tipper" line 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.

Correction (March 18, 2026): An earlier version of this article stated the restaurant was in Sacramento. It was in Silicon Valley, near San Jose. Sacramento is where Mona Simpson later found Jandali at a different establishment. We also corrected "regularly" to "once or twice," per Jobs' own account in the Isaacson biography.