F. Mason Green
Owner Partner & Founder
I'm Mason Green, Owner Partner and Founder of The Bourgeois Pig Café. I've been Involved at some capacity in the restaurant/food service business since about 1981. Beginning my culinary journey as a busboy at a Chinese restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona, I have worked mainly as a waiter in various types of casual and fine dining establishments as well as resort hotels throughout the Scottsdale/Phoenix area, Monterrey Bay area, and the San Francisco, California region, including a brief stint as a "Butler" at The Sherman House, on Russian Hill in San Francisco.
Graduating from Arizona State University in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science degree in business with an emphasis on entrepreneurship, I knew I wanted to start my own company. Believe it or not, and thankfully not, the Bourgeois Pig was almost the name of my used record and CD store...glad THAT didn't happen!
After college I backpacked through Europe for about 6 months, getting the restless travel bug out of my system, or at least satisfying it for the moment, and visiting about 20 different European countries, as well as Morocco. My love of history as well as my European travels, have influenced my vision of what the cafe would be.
While living on Russian Hill in San Francisco, I used to frequent a local, independent coffeehouse for a mocha and a read on my days off from waiting tables. It was on one of these excursions, as I sipped my Ghirardelli mocha and marveled at the long line of patrons at this cafe, that the lightbulb came on, and I had my Eureka moment. And thus, The Pig was theoretically conceived!
San Francisco was way too expensive, and Phoenix was way too hot, but Chicago...Chicago was just right. And so, it began.
Borrowing money from friends and family, the Pig was opened on a shoestring budget on May 15th, 1993. At just 27 years of age, I was determined to make it work, come hell or high water. Now, nearly 30 years later, we have survived the great pandemic, leaner and meaner; during which time we completed our second major rehab of the Pig in its history. As we navigate the new roaring twenties, we are making final preparations to open our latest lovechild, a period speakeasy called The Gatsby.
In my world beyond The Pig I have been blessed with two very wonderful, smart and beautiful daughters, Riley and Addie, who occasionally help out at The Pig when they have time. I thank them for their encouragement and appreciation of what I do, and I especially thank them for their patience and understanding in this time sucker of a family business, I know it's not easy. Thank you very much as well, to my wonderful girlfriend Cami, whose support and patience are invaluable!
Some of my side interests include rehabbing old houses, metal detecting for Civil War relics and old coins, and more travel of course. Though I rarely have the time to travel as much as I'd like to, I have been back to Scotland and Ireland some three times already, and I do relish traveling more in the future. I have past enjoyed medieval style armored combat, sword and board, in the SCA, fighting for the Middle Kingdom at Pennsic several times, as well as The Estrella War in the southwest, and hope to do so again in the future. Additionally, I currently enjoy playing bagpipes, and marching in parades, in a 100+ year old pipe and drum band, The Stockyard Kilty Band, or SYKB, on the south side of Chicago. I also enjoy panning, sluicing and mining on several hard rock and placer claims I own in Colorado and California, when time permits.