Merry Millennium

Happy holidays everyone!

It’s Christmas up in here 🙂

I’m working on the 25th, so Santa was nice and obliging and came early this year (this post is from the 21st).

To celebrate as a family, we all went to dinner in the city.

In spite of the gross weather, we headed into San Francisco early to browse the Ferry Building, check out the tree (in Union Square) and grab some drinks at the famous Harry Denton’s Starlight Room. 

Views of the Ferry Building…

Making our way to Union Square…

SF love

 

After soaking up the holiday spirit, we walked around the block to the Sir Francis Drake, home of Harry Denton’s Starlight Room. 

It’s on the 21st floor and offers the most breathtaking views of the city.

Amazing, right?  Look at how itty bitty the people ice skating in Union Square look!  And the tree!  It was such a clear day, too, so you could see all the way to the Bay. 

Here’s the most ridiculous part about getting to the bar: it doesn’t open until 6 pm.  Unfortunately, we arrived at 5:50…also unfortunate was the fact that we didn’t learn this until the elevator stopped at the 20th floor and then started going back down to the lobby.  Rather than return to the first floor, we decided to get off at the 15th floor and then take the stairs the rest of the way…

Six flights later, we arrived to a locked back door.  Ugh.  Luckily someone heard us knocking and we were let in…early…

So although it required a bit of cardio, we did manage to arrive before any other guests.  Early bird catches the worm best views.

Anyway, we soon got to ordering drinks. 🙂

I got the Forbidden Apple with champagne, Lairds apple brandy, and Grand Marnier.  It tasted like champagne with booze.  Not very apple-y at all.  Kyle and my mom got the Poire Fizz, my dad got Harry’s Martini, and my other sis got the Cable Car. 

Cheers!

Appetizers followed, starting with a hummus platter.

It was the thickest hummus ever, and required utensils just to scoop it out of the bowl.  Definitely packed in.  The pita was really good, but I only had a little bit because I was saving my appetite for dinner. 

We also got flat bread with goat cheese, balsamic glazed pears, and arugula.

And crab cakes with Israeli couscous.

All together.  🙂

Then we exchanged presents (since Laura and I have minimal overlapping in our work schedules).

Only hippie families reuse such awful boxes (the 90’s were so gross). 

Then we took some family photos. 

No worries Tyra, we taught mom and dad the elbow pop. 

Three sisters…

 

Or the three stooges?

Stooges.  Definitely stooges.

After we were done taking pics removed from the premises, we made our way to dinner.

But not without attempting some group shots in the elevator (more than I care to share…).

 

Klassy with a k. 

Maybe those cocktails were stronger than we thought…??  Yikes.

A few blocks later, we arrived at our dinner destination.

Millennium is a foodie’s dream.  It’s one of the most amazing restaurants in San Francisco – a truly gourmet dining experience. 

From their website: Millennium Restaurant is dedicated to supporting the essential earthly concepts of organic food production, small farms, sustainable agriculture, recycling and composting. We cook with fresh produce delivered every day, and choose organic whenever possible. We believe that a gourmet dining experience can be created out of vegetarian, healthy, and environmentally friendly foods. We are proud to state that our restaurant is completely free of genetically modified foods.

I first learned about Millennium when I was doing research for potential wedding cakes.  Their bakery is pretty famous (especially in the vegan wedding cake world), but in the end we chose to get a non-vegan wedding cake (and I got my own separate cupcake).

But back to dinner.

We started with a Vouvray which we all loved.  The sweetness went perfectly with the spicy flavors of our food.  Speaking of the food…

 

I started off with the Sea Vegetable & Avocado Salad.

Watermelon radish, sea vegetable, noodles, kale, shredded root vegetables, sweet ginger-umeboshi dressing, Korean chile spiced macadamia nuts, wasabi oil.  Deeeelicious.  I can’t even choose the best part of this salad because the whole thing was perfection.  The different flavors were so well balanced, I loved.  Loved!

My sister got the soup of the day, which was butternut squash with celery root.  She seemed to savor it’s cream-less-ness immensely, although she did spruce up the decoration a bit before digging in.

Yes, she had to take a picture of her contribution. 

 

My mom and dad split the Wilted Bloomsdale Spinach Salad with pears caramelized with thyme & vanilla, smoked tofu, red onion, toasted hazelnuts, and a creamy pear & Witte beer dressing. The photo doesn’t really do it justice.

Kyle ordered the Winter Greens Salad which featured Satsuma mandarin, rosemary smoked pecans, with a cranberry shallot vinaigrette. 

We also ordered an appetizer for the table to share, since it looked too good to pass on. 

Ladies and gents, the Black Bean Torte.  It’s the item that they never take off the menu, with whole wheat tortilla, caramelized plantain, smoky black bean puree, pumpkin-habanero papazul, cashew “sour cream”, and pomegranate salad. 

Sadly, this picture doesn’t even begin to show off how delectable it was.  It was almost sweet enough to be a dessert, but not really.  The combination of banana and black beans was surprisingly tasty, and all in all it was just a really good dish. 

Obviously I dug into the bread, too (with the chickpea and sage dip).  Mmmm.

Before dinner came, we moved onto a second bottle of wine.  Sadly, none of us liked this one as much.  🙁

For dinner I went with the waiter’s recommendation and chose the Seared Sweet Potato Griddle Cake.

Honestly, I wanted to try every single thing on the menu.  It all looked incredible! 

South Indian black lentil sambar, seared cauliflower & winter greens, coconut, cilantro & lime chutney, and sweet onion pakora. 

My sister got the same thing, and we were both pretty convinced we chose the best thing on the menu.  It was really really good.  The griddle cake was crispy on the outside, even with all the goodies piled on top.  The black lentils surrounding the cake had a kind of chili flavoring and I couldn’t help but scarf them all first.  0% leftovers. 

 

Kyle and my dad both chose the Blue Corn Tamale with smoked poblano chile & butternut squash filling, sautéed fall greens, black bean mole, paper lantern chile-pumpkin emulsion, and apple-cilantro salsa.  Kyle said it was hearty, not too spicy, and generally a great dish. 

Side note: he was done before I was even half way through mine. 

 

Marie ordered the Arborio Crusted Tempeh (which was my runner up order).

It had Moroccan spiced Israeli couscous with roasted root vegetables, broccoli rapini & dried apricots, cinnamon spiced pecan-pomegranate sauce, and sesame pickled cucumber.

My mom got the most massive and beastly order of all (seriously the plate was piled sky high), which was the Maple Roasted Winter Squash.  This was another runner up dinner choice. 

How amazing does this look?  It had hazelnut-farro risotto with chanterelle mushrooms, baby artichokes & gigante beans, Formanova beet & red wine reduction, braised fennel & treviso salad.  She had mucho leftovers.  Clearly. 

Kyle and my dad were the only ones with enough room for dessert.  Kyle said this Chocolate Ganache Cake with Peppermint ice cream was the best vegan dessert he’s ever had. 

 

Ya think?

My dad on the other hand went with the sorbet trio.  Not sure what the flavors were, but he finished it off with ease.

I love spending the holidays with my family, so even though I won’t be home for Christmas Day, it was nice to get to spend a beautiful evening with those I love.

And good food.  Millennium is very much on my top ten list.  We were all very very satisfied with our food. 

Going out to dinner on Christmas is definitely not a tradition in our family, we are very much a cook all day, eat all day, and lounge-around-with-stuffed-bellies family.  But this was a nice alternative, especially since we are all workig different schedules around the 25th.  Have you changed your holiday traditions now that you’re an adult?  I’m glad to be back in California because now, even though I’m still working the main holidays, at least my commute home is simpler than a cross country flight.