When local chef Adam Sanchez looks at a dusty, horseshoe-shaped
bar inside the old Harvest Time Restaurant building on Monterey
Road, he sees an indelible past.
”
I’ve been coming to this restaurant since I was a kid,
”
Sanchez said. The restaurant, referred to then simply as the
eatery inside the Milias Hotel, was Gilroy’s restaurant, Sanchez
said. He’s hoping it will be again.
When local chef Adam Sanchez looks at a dusty, horseshoe-shaped bar inside the old Harvest Time Restaurant building on Monterey Road, he sees an indelible past.
He thinks of dice games with the seasoned regulars, “Gasper” and “Butch,” and remembers his father shuttling him there for a quick lunch now and then.
“I’ve been coming to this restaurant since I was a kid,” Sanchez said.
The restaurant, referred to then simply as the eatery inside the Milias Hotel, was Gilroy’s restaurant, Sanchez said.
He’s hoping it will be again.
Sanchez signed a lease to take over the first-floor property at the corner of Monterey Road and Sixth Street on Feb. 1. With the help of longtime business partner Ann Zyburra, the two will open The Milias Restaurant in late April or May, Sanchez said.
“Gilroy needs this place,” he said. “We need to be a better restaurant town.”
Steak will be the restaurant’s premier menu item, Sanchez said, but the business will feature of wealth of delicious appetizers and offer a full bar.
The food will be exemplary, Zyburra said, but the jewel of the restaurant might be the building itself.
Music from the likes of Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong will flutter throughout the restaurant as patrons dine on entrees prepared in a fully remodeled kitchen, Sanchez said.
While some things will be new, other familiar staples will stay. The cowboy mural above the bar isn’t going anywhere, and the building’s original, hand-laid mosaic tile floor will be revealed and restored, Sanchez said.
There will be many more remodeling efforts, but Sanchez said he wanted to keep an element of mystery to the project.
Zyburra said the moment she walked into the empty Harvest Time building, “it just felt right.”
“It feels like we’ve been there forever,” Zyburra said.
The opening of the restaurant itself will be the culmination of an ongoing competition between Sanchez and Zyburra, who once worked together at Sanchez’s fathers car dealership in Gilroy, then again at a San Jose catering company.
For several years, the two waged a friendly cooking war, trying to convince friends and family of their individual culinary supremacy.
There was one problem, however. Sanchez’s and Zyburra’s dishes were equally delectable, and it would be impossible to choose a winner, they recalled.
They later decided they could combine their efforts to bring a new restaurant to Gilroy.
Sanchez said he hoped residents and out-of-towners who frequent his business will also visit other downtown or locally owned restaurants.
“Hopefully we can start a co-op,” Sanchez said. “Hopefully all the restaurants can work together.”
