Chef Wesley Nilssen

My first job in the kitchen was in 1998 at the Ryde Hotel in Walnut Grove, CA. I would show up early in the morning to make breads, tie up chickens, blanch pastas, cut vegetables, and work very busy brunches. After that, I moved on to a place in Stockton called Garlic Brothers, where I made pizzas, appetizers, and handled some sauté.

When I first moved to Sacramento, I got a job at Ink Eats and Drinks. There, I ran late-nights for about a year. Eventually (and luckily) the owner, Chris Nestor, pulled me to the daytime shift, where I was trained to run the kitchen at Sous chef level. A year later, we opened Icon. Unfortunately, that closed after about a year and a half, so I went back to Ink.  Not long after that, I went to The Kitchen for almost two years.

All throughout this time, I got to know the de Vere White family very well. So it was only a matter of time before I became part of their pub family. I came to de Vere’s Irish Pub in 2010.

We believe in raising the bar on pub food at de Vere’s. That’s why we prepare fresh products daily and create our own interpretations of some classics—like bangers, white and black pudding, Irish bacon, and brown bread. It’s truly a unique pub dining experience.