The Pro now has a football pro as an investor.
Former Indianapolis Colts and Stanford Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck is investing in the revitalization of The Old Pro, a Palo Alto sports bar that was open from 1964 to 2022. Luck said mutual friends connected him with Guillaume Bienaimé, the chef-owner of Zola and BarZola who is spearheading reopening The Old Pro as The Pro.
The Pro will pay tribute to the legacy of tech industry leaders Bill Campbell and Mike Homer, who both invested in The Old Pro in 2002, by supporting local education and youth sports. Bienaimé said he plans to host fundraising events “in partnership with charities, athletes, sports teams or media figures,” donate proceeds from the sale of select menu items to local charities, and work with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula as well as other nonprofits.
For Luck, his decision to invest in the project was driven by an emotional connection to the former sports bar.
“The Old Pro held a pretty seminal space in my college experience and my wife’s college experience, and it was a fixture in our social life,” Luck said.
While he doesn’t remember his first time stepping into The Old Pro, his earliest memory there is of drinking beer with his father a month or two after turning 21. He said he would go there for birthday parties, and his sister even held a get-together there the night before her wedding.
It was through The Old Pro that Luck got to know Campbell, a business executive who coached major Silicon Valley names like Sundar Pichai, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos and Jack Dorsey.
“Bill Campbell, I think, is a very important figure in a lot of folks’ lives out there,” Luck said. “I get excited that Guillaume’s vision honors his legacy and what he meant to the area and The Old Pro.”
This is Luck’s first time investing in the food and beverage space, and he said he will be relatively hands-off with the project. He doesn’t intend on becoming more involved in the restaurant industry as a whole and said that investing in The Pro was a unique situation because of his history with it.
“If we had not been living in Palo Alto the past couple years, I’m not sure I would be involved in this,” Luck said. “My wife and I met at Stanford. It was an amazing four years there in undergrad, so we feel an intense connection to the place, and I think we also miss places like The Old Pro.”
Palo Alto has had a dearth of dive bars since Antonio’s Nut House closed in 2020 and The Old Pro closed in 2022, leaving The Rose & Crown as one of the few places to watch a game and grab a drink in the city.
As for Luck’s favorite game-watching sips, “It might be pretty basic, but a beer or a margarita,” he said.
The Pro, which will serve traditional sports bar food and drinks, is expected to open in eight to nine months, Bienaimé said. The major difference between The Pro and The Old Pro is the removal of Bucky the mechanical bull.
“I never gave it a ride,” Luck said. “I certainly watched my wife ride it. She’s a little more adventurous that way than I am.”
What most excites Luck about being a part of The Pro is the community aspect, he said.
“Food, people sitting around a table, eating together, drinking together, sharing stories, laughing … with friends, with family, with new people, with old people, meeting folks … I’m excited that The Pro can help provide some of that atmosphere again for our neighborhood,” Luck said.
The Pro, 541 Ramona St., Palo Alto.
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