Blend @ Annette’s Café to Open at Stanford

Photo by Ker Than

In winter quarter, there will be a new dining option for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on campus.

Blend @ Annette’s Café, a part of the new science quad, will be located between the Sapp Center for Science Teaching and Learning and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Biology Research Building. The café will offer rice bowls and other Asian-style dishes five days a week from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m.

According to Shannon Silva, assistant director of facilities and capital planning in the School of Humanities and Sciences (H&S), the variety and quality of its cuisine make Blend a great choice for Stanford. “It was also really important that we offer the campus affordable options for dining throughout the day, including evening hours. Blend checks all the boxes for us,” Silva said.

The new eatery will be operated by siblings Marc Lao and Jeeryn Dang, who own small businesses in the Bay Area. The pair draw inspiration from Magic Wok, a family-owned and operated restaurant in Sunnyvale established by their parents in 1989. Like Magic Wok, Blend @ Annette’s Café will serve an eclectic selection of Asian-inspired dishes.

“Our heritage is both Chinese and Filipino,” Dang said, “and we do a lot of Vietnamese cooking at home. Our food is a blend of those things.”

Photo by Ker Than

To help choose the vendor for this new facility, H&S sought input from the Stanford community. Last August a group of more than 100 faculty, students, and staff took part in a taste test, scrutinizing menus and trying samples supplied by three vendors. Lao and Dang won praise for their “beautiful presentation” of dishes that included braised pork, panko-crusted chicken with lemon sauce, and fried lumpia rolls.

Tasters were also impressed with the “mix of distinctive flavors” that would enhance the diversity of Stanford’s on-campus dining and Blend’s “awesome breakfast options.” Along with a traditional Filipino breakfast with garlic rice and fried egg, pastries and coffee will be served. The lunch and dinner menu will include soups, gluten-free and vegetarian choices, and bowls made to order with ingredients such as tofu, mixed greens, and kimchi.

Lao and Dang are thrilled with the opportunity to join the community at Stanford, where they hope to recreate the family atmosphere that has endeared Magic Wok to its customers. Dang promises that Blend @ Annette’s Café will be “true to who we are” and “bring the things we love to eat” to campus for students, faculty, and staff to enjoy, too.

Media Contact:

Joy Leighton, School of Humanities and Sciences: joy [dot] leighton [at] stanford [dot] edu (joy[dot]leighton[at]stanford[dot]edu), 650-721-5711