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Maurice Dissels said his culinary career started at his grandmother’s knees back in his home country of Guyana. Coming from a large family filled with many brothers, sisters and cousins, he wanted to find a way to be first in line for dinner, which is why he became grandma’s little kitchen helper.
As he reflected on his years of success with his restaurant Oyo in downtown Pleasanton, he thought about how proud he is to not just run a successful business that was able to recently expand its size, but to also be able to share his grandmother’s food and his culture with the world.
“It’s been a dream of mine, ever since culinary school, to introduce the world to my cuisine,” Dissels told the Weekly.
Born and raised in British Guiana (as it was then known) on the northern coast of South America, Dissels began his career studying the culinary arts with a strong background in Cajun and Caribbean cuisine and food science before he moved to the United States where he honed his skills at a culinary institute in Chicago before moving on to working at restaurants throughout the country.
Eventually, he moved his way to the Bay Area where he worked for restaurants such as Pasta Cuisine in Orinda, the Historical Pleasanton Hotel where he served as executive chef for 8 years, 840 North First, and Birk’s Restaurant where he was the executive chef for over 16 years.
At every restaurant, he said he always took some sense of ownership and when he moved to working in sales for Birk’s Restaurant, he was able to begin drawing up plans of opening his own restaurant.
And in 2019, he and his family did just that by creating Oyo, which is an endearing nickname for Dissels’ maternal grandmother.
Nestled in on the north side of Pleasanton’s Main Street, Dissels opened the restaurant with his two sons, Sam and Leicester. While he acknowledged the fact that Oyo is run and owned by a Black family — and that there aren’t many similar businesses in the city — he said didn’t open it motivated to become the best Black-owned restaurant.
“We set out, first and foremost, to create a great restaurant … for every guest, every time,” Dissels said. “(Us) being Black is incidental.”
While they prepared for the struggle of opening a new restaurant, nothing could have prepared them for the tremendous support they received from the community since they opened their doors.
“We knew from day one that we would be successful,” Dissels said. “We just never banked on it being this successful.”
Dissels described Guyanese cuisine as a melting pot of food because it is a mixture of roughly seven different cultures that coexisted for thousands of years including East India, West Africa, Portuguese, Chinese, British, Venezuelan and Brazilian.
“Over the years, that formed a culture … seven different languages, seven different cultures coexisted … the cuisine reflects that,” he said. “When you are eating Guyanese food, you’re eating food from Trinidad and Tobago. You’re eating Jamaican cuisine. You’re eating Indian, you’re eating African.”
Dissels said he always felt like being from Guyana was a gift because even though he was classically trained in the culinary arts, being able to draw from an almost hidden cuisine that not many people have heard of helped him and his business really stand out.
He said while that cultural diversity is reflected in his menu, they have always tried to make their food approachable.
He said Oyo originally started with a plethora of different food ideas but he wanted to introduce the Pleasanton and Tri-Valley community to Guyanese food in such a way that they could recognize certain dishes like salmon or short ribs before realizing just how different they prepare them at Oyo.
“We lean on those dishes that would translate to the demographic, to the general palette in Pleasanton,” Dissels said.
Sam Dissels, Maurice’s son and general manager at Oyo, also pointed out that the restaurant’s success, in part, comes from the community wanting to try something new.
However, as a born and raised Pleasanton native, he also said he felt like the restaurant’s success also came from the community where he grew up.
“With us opening there was a sense of the community wanting us to succeed,” Sam Dissels said.
While the restaurant faced some minor challenges over the years — not learning early on about the financial aspects of running a business — the father and son said they have continued to see immense growth and success to the point where they were recently able to expand their business.
Dissels said expansion was always part of the plan since day one and when Clover Creek, which had been a longtime staple of Pleasanton’s downtown for over 30 years, decided to vacate their previous home at 670 Main St. back in September 2023 in order to move near the Raley’s store on Sunol Boulevard, they jumped at the opportunity.
It took most of 2024 but eventually in December, the Dissels family unveiled its new look to the public. Apart from additional seating, they were able to get more storage space and additional restrooms.
“The opulence of the place really overwhelms people in the most beautiful way,” Dissels said.
Dissels said while the locals in Pleasanton have always been supportive of his business, it has been nice to see his restaurant become a destination for folks coming in from as far away as Santa Cruz and Stockton, which he said goes to show how successful they have become.
“We couldn’t tell you, with any accuracy, who our core clientele is … it’s every demographic,” Dissels said.
But he still felt really thankful for Pleasanton for not just being a home for his family, but for the community’s continued support of his restaurant, which was shown as recently as this week when he has been named a featured chef for Taste Tri-Valley Restaurant Week, which runs until Sunday.
“The PDA is thrilled by the expansion of Oyo in Downtown,” Laura Brooks, interim executive director for the Pleasanton Downtown Association, told the Weekly. “Seeing the growing success of this incredible (and delicious!) restaurant is a testament to the hard work and creative vision of the owner and executive chef, Maurice Dissels. He is so passionate about the food they make, and you can truly taste that in his dishes.”
Dissels and his two sons also reminisced about how rewarding it has been to not just see the business thrive and expand, but to be able to provide for themselves and their family thanks to that success.
“It’s hard work, but it’s rewarding work because it’s always for us,” Leicester Dissels, the bar manager, told the Weekly.
For dad specifically, he also said he just enjoys being able to give back to the city that helped raise his two sons.
“When I work, I know I’m supporting my family, I know I’m supporting my community,” Dissels said. “I’m just doing something positive, something fun and enjoyable for the community.”
Best homemade – peanut butter jelly bacon sausage and egg sandwich.