Brisbane's historic 7 Mile House

Well, it has served generations of customers, survived prohibition, and even made headlines for an FBI raid. Yes, yes, Brisbane's Seven Mile House is the oldest bar and restaurant in the Bay Area. You hear some of that sizzling food behind me. We'll get to it in a moment. Still operating under the same name and in the same location. And the last original Mile House still standing where it began. And for 22 years, Vanessa Garcia has kept Seven Mile House thriving alongside her daughter, Visidora, and her 80-year-old mom, Cleopatra, the resident pastry chef. So to learn more about three generations of women who are preserving a piece of Bay Area history, we welcome the owner, Vanessa Garcia of Visidora, Villa Carlos, and head bartender, May, who's all the way at the end there, and chef Roxana Cabrillo. She's cooking up a dish over there. Thank you all so much for joining us this morning. The food smells good. The drinks are flowing. Sal, I know, is in the control room, back in the newsroom, getting jealous about all this. Thank you for joining us this morning. Thank you, Andre. Seven Mile House. This place is pretty historic going back that far. How did you come to acquire it? Oh, wow. It actually just fell on my lap. Really? Yes. How does something like that fall on your lap? Unless you ordered the FBI raid. I know, right? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Long story. I've always been an entrepreneur, and when the business was up for sale, I just couldn't say no. And the property is also owned by her dad and the family, so it was just a little bit easier to take that risk. And then I just said, let's go, even if I have no – I did not have any restaurant experience. I have no bar experience, no nothing. I just – I'm just going to go in and figure it out. Yes. See what happens. Yes, yes, yes. Wow, and so what's it been like for you, you know, being part of this experience with your mom and your dad? It's been amazing. I mean, we, I've watched her grow up since her, or I've watched her grow up. I've watched you grow up. I watched her grow up. I wonder why she slipped and said that, Mom. Oh, yeah. I watched her grow through building Seven Mile since 22 years ago, and there was just three of them. And then now she's a historian and guardian of Seven Mile House. yeah it's grown so much including um me and i'm i've it's shaped helped shaped me who you are today you know this place has such a history you wrote a book about it i did as well tell us a little bit about this book that you wrote about this it's called uh see you at the seven yes yes tell me about it so it's about like 13 years in the making ever since i um i took over 22 years ago i asked all the patrons to contact me yeah i also did a lot of research going to libraries and to historical sites. And it was just really important for us to put together a book because when I took over, nobody knew what Seven Mile House was at all. And how long had it been around when you took over? 168 years now. And no one knew about it? Really? No one knew about it. And so I made sure that I was on a mission to publish a book. You wanted to bring the history about this place that you purchased. Yes. And that it doesn't, I mean, did it serve Filipino, Italian cuisine before that? What was it, just a bar? When I took over, it was just a bar. There was no restaurant. But historically, the restaurant was always separate from the bar. Gotcha. But when I took over, you know, we decided to just serve American food first. You know, get them in there. Get them in there. I can get you in the burger, right? Yeah, exactly. And then I say, Andre, why don't you try the adobo or the sisig or the lumpia? Because 22 years ago, Filipino food was not well known. That's what I'm saying. It's not like, yeah, it's not like it would be, you know, something that would be in history. It's more recent history, I suppose. Yes, yes, yeah. So you use that to introduce people to Filipino food. Filipino food. And then you have this mixed with Italian food as well. Yes. Tell us, first of all, what's being cooked up over here by Chef Roxanna. Chef Roxy is now making the Filipino Chopino, which is actually a recipe by Art Nelson Concordia, who is very important in our community. He brought ethnic studies to California public schools. Wow. And so we honor his work by serving the Filipino Cioppino every October since it's Filipino American History Month right now. And what is involved in this dish? So the Filipino Cioppino is the Filipino version of our San Francisco Cioppino, which is tomato broth with seafood, basically. Gotcha. And our version has coconut. Coconut in it, right. Yeah, you got to have a little something. Exactly. Gives it that touch. Yes, exactly. So there's a lot of coconut in the Philippines. So that's why we call it Filipino Cioppino. And it's super duper popular this month. Everyone's been coming for this. For this dish? Yes. Oh, fantastic. And now we have it here. And then over there, we have the bartender, May. She's making up something with ube in it. Yes, that is our ube espresso martini. She invented that. We do make our own ube syrup from scratch. Wow. And it's really delicious. And people flock to us for that as well. What has it been like, you know, on this journey with your family and watching this business grow over, you know, two decades? Yeah, it's been up and down, honestly, because not knowing anything about the restaurant industry. And I was a new immigrant when I started the business. So it was really fun because, and challenging, because I was learning about the culture and also teaching about our culture, which made it fun too. Right, right. What's the reception been like? It's been great. I mean, when my mom and I were working on the floor, we would always talk to people about Filipino culture, and we would also try to absorb American culture. Yeah, let's talk about dessert now, specifically the sixth annual Ube Bake Off. What is that about? When does it happen? Tell us a little bit about that. So it happened the first week of October. So four home bakers come and compete. They bring us their Ube desserts. It happens at the restaurant. We have a sampler. And then people come, order the sampler, and vote. We give them a ballot. Wow. Every sampler comes with two ballots. Wow. And so the people spoke, and our winner here is those three, the Ube gluten-free Ube cheesecake. So who competed? Who made all this? Who were the people that competed and made that? So that is the winner of Rosalie's cheesecake. Rosalie, okay. Wow, okay, that sounds delicious. My goodness. That is awesome. I wonder what surprised you most about this, you know, about 7 Mile when you were looking into the history of it. I got surprised because I found out that all the former owners got caught doing something illegal. Like what? Like what kind of illegal activity? Well, the owners before me. Before you. Before me. She wants to clarify. Before me. Before her. Yes. Not anymore. They were caught by the FBI because the son of the owner ran the largest sports gambling syndicate west of the Mississippi. Wow, that's like some 1930s movie stuff that you see. Yes, and then in Prohibition, the owner then got caught transporting whiskey. Wow. So I have a bunch of stories in the book. It's really basically all about bar ownership from the start today. And you're still at the same location that it has always been. So where is that exactly? So we're at 2800 Bayshore Boulevard in Brisbane. It's the oldest restaurant and bar in the same location with the same name. The Seven Mile House is also the last mile house left standing. There were multiple mile houses? There were mile houses from Portsmouth Square in San Francisco going down to San Jose at every mile. Imagine yourself riding a horse. And traveling from San Francisco to San Jose, it would take you about at least nine hours to get there. Oh, my goodness. You needed a spot to sit, drink, and, you know, when it was legal. Yes. And finally, what is Chef Roxy cooking up over there? Now, Chef Roxy is making the sizzling sisig. It's very popular at 7 Mile. We do it in the most authentic way possible. When I used to, you know, hang out in the Philippines in my early 20s, that was my favorite. I would have sisig and a red horse beer. Oh, that sounds delicious. And so when we started 22 years ago, I really wanted to bring sisig to our menu. Wow. But it's really hard to make, and I don't cook. I just make things happen. You just make, yeah, you're the business person behind it, the brains behind all of it. Well, Vanessa, Ms. Adora, thank you so much for joining us today. Chef Roxy, Mae, thank you all so much for joining us today and celebrating this. Get the book, visit the restaurant, and eat some of this delicious food here. Because I'm going to try some here in just a little bit. Yeah. All right. Thank you all so much for stopping by this morning. We really appreciate it. Chef, it smells fantastic. I can't wait to taste it. All right, Pam, over to you. All right. Thank you so much.