On Thursday, Sept. 26, Millennium hosted a 30th Anniversary celebration. “Good will towards all” was the unspoken theme of the evening. It felt like a holiday party given by Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig. The cheerful staff buzzed around the dining room refilling drinks, chatting with regulars and catching up with old friends. A former dishwasher was part of the music trio playing in the corner. Diners arrived dressed to the nines, eager to sip the wine and sample the table of ever replenishing hors d’oeuvres.
Rather than imposing a formal sit down meal on everyone, guests mingled and were free to wander about inside or onto the back patio. At the front of the restaurant, the series of small bites disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived on the scene. A tomato and apple gazpacho soup tasted tangy and only slightly sweet. It was like taking a bite out of the color red.
Lettuce wraps contained the unlikely combination of clamshell mushrooms, gigantes beans and avocado. I would have subtracted the mushrooms and added some crunch. Radish, perhaps, or a bell pepper. An encrusted ball of arancini, with corn miso butter and a puttanesca sauce, was a considerably more substantial dish that complemented the more ephemeral ones.
Thirty years ago, vegan and vegetarian restaurants were culinary outliers. For confirmed carnivores and omnivores, they promised earnest tofu-forward meals covered in excessive amounts of alfalfa sprouts and served with a side of butterless brown bread. Millennium executive chef and co-owner Eric Tucker didn’t set out to challenge any of those stereotypes. But he understood that a plant-based menu appealed to a niche audience.
As the benefits of plant-based diets gained traction in the ensuing years, Millennium continued to develop a following among vegans and non-vegans alike. Nowadays, Tucker describes the cuisine he makes as “California casual.” The meals are seasonal, which means the menu changes regularly. He explained that, “We’re pretty much an old school restaurant with appetizers and entrées. We don’t fuss over very small courses.”
Tucker believes that Millennium diners have appreciated the fact that the kitchen has resisted the use of fake meat products. “You’re going to see a potato cake sitting over a bunch of lobster and oyster mushrooms,” he said. “You might get the suggestion of seafood because it’s got a little sea bean salad with nori dust.”
People have also appreciated the restaurant’s farm to table approach. “We were one of the first ones to go to farmers’ markets to buy produce directly from farmers,” Tucker recalled. Some of the same farms have been open as long as Millennium. The chef also attributes the restaurant’s longevity to a range of special events. “As far as I know, we’re still the only restaurant that does an all chili pepper tasting menu,” he said. And, in August, they hosted over 160 people for an all tomato dinner.
Millennium was reborn from the ashes of Margaret Malone’s San Rafael restaurant, Milly’s. In 1990, Tucker secured an internship there through his culinary program and loved the vibe. After Malone closed Milly’s a couple years later, Tucker found investors to restart the restaurant with a new moniker in San Francisco. Millennium moved to its current Rockridge location in 2015.
Before Alison Bagby was hired at Millennium in 2007, she had decided she was finished working in the restaurant business. By the time she moved to San Francisco, Bagby had already worked at upscale plant-based restaurants in Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles. “I was moving in a different direction, but I saw that Millennium was hiring,” she said. After trying plant-based food on the East Coast, she felt that the restaurant was serving the best food of its kind in the country.
Bagby is now Millennium’s director of operations and co-owner. She believes a crucial element of the restaurant’s enduring success is chef Tucker’s menu, which is inspired by cuisines from around the globe.
“Eric’s creative talent as an amazing chef is underappreciated—at least in the press,” she said. “There aren’t many restaurants where you can choose something Italian, or South American. You have so many flavor profiles on the menu that satisfy a lot of people.” Guests who’ve been coming in for many years have told her that the food continues to get better and better.
The 30th Anniversary celebration was an opportunity for friends and family members of Millennium’s staff to gather together alongside a devoted community. For many years, Bagby’s kids grew up in the restaurant while she was working her 14-hour shifts there. Miyoko Schinner, vegan chef and cookbook author, showed up too, which was one of the highlights of the party for her.
“There was a lot of appreciation for the restaurant in one room,” Bagby said. “We don’t have a lot of employee turnover, and it feels like a kind of family. We’re lucky to have the people we work with.”
Millennium, open Tue-Sat 5-9pm. 510.735.9459. 5912 College Ave., Oakland. millenniumrestaurant.com. IG: @millenniumrestaurant.
