When Adam Sanchez and Ann Zyburra opened the Milias restaurant in 2011, they were prepared to be business partners. What they did not expect was to gain several phantom partners who have strong opinions about music, their employees and even their patrons.
Originally established by George Milias Sr. in 1922, The Milias Restaurant and Steakhouse was operated by the family for many years. George’s wife encouraged the cowboy motif with the addition of the unique horseshoe bar, still the dominating focal point of the restaurant today.
George Milias was known to wear a cowboy hat on occasion, and it is for this reason that Adam is convinced the original owner paid him a visit one night.
He recounted an early experience when he was alone in the wine room after the restaurant had closed. He was busy with inventory when he heard the distinctive sound of cowboy boots coming toward him. He looked up; calling out to whoever was there that the restaurant was closed, and saw the shadow of a man wearing a cowboy hat through the glass door. When he stepped into the main room, the room was empty and a quick tour of the kitchen and dining room confirmed that he was alone in the building and that all of the doors were locked.
Zyburra was skeptical of any paranormal claims until shortly after they occupied the space and started renovations.
“This was their domain and it felt like we were intruding a little bit,” she said. “I was a little uneasy when we first started … now I think they’re familiar with us and we’re familiar with them. Maybe things are still going on, but occasionally we don’t notice it.”
Zyburra and Sanchez are unsure of how many ghosts call The Milias home, but they believe a former cook, a former bartender, George Milias Sr. and a little girl are present.
“We had a bartender here that’s like, more than skeptical, just not a believer,” Sanchez said. “He’s sitting here one day, he’d just finished setting up the dining room and he hears a chair move. He’s like, ‘What the heck was that?’ And he goes back out there, and there’s a chair pulled away from the table, and he thinks, ‘That’s creepy. Maybe I didn’t push it all the way in.’ So he puts it back, but he hears it again as soon as he turns around. After that he was like, “Alright, alright, alright, I believe you!’ That’s pretty creepy.”
Zyburra believes a former chef still haunts the kitchen.
“I know there’s a chef back there, I feel that,” she said. “It’s more often on a Sunday night, kind of when he’s reclaiming his space for the next 24 hours when technically we’re not here.”
Perhaps the most intriguing story is an incident involving a regular customer who was moving out of state and brought his family to The Milias for a farewell dinner. Despite his phone being on, he received a notification that he had a voicemail. He utilized an app that sent a transcript of the voicemail, and it simply said, “Bye love.” Strangely, his phone did not show that he had received a call, and when he listened to the message, it was just the sound of a child crying.
Far from being bothered by their not so silent partners, Zyburra and Sanchez have made peace with them.
“There are no malevolent spirits,” Zyburra said. “They just remind you from time to time that we are sharing a space … I sort of look at them as quality control.”
“Upper, upper management,” she joked.
She added that the spirits who roam the Milias and the unexplained events are simply part of the restaurant.
“They feel like part of the history here,” Zyburra said. “There was a reason that they decided to stay here.”
Various mediums and ghost hunters have visited the restaurant through the years, according to Zyburra.
“We have been cautioned by a few mediums not to attempt a séance or anything like that,” she said.
“Don’t open a door you don’t know how to close,” Sanchez added.
The elegantly appointed restaurant filled with historic photographs and memorabilia seems to have found the key to success in a delicate balance: keep the physical doors open and the supernatural doors just slightly ajar.
Visit the Milias Restaurant at 7397 Monterey Road in Gilroy. For more information or reservations, call (408) 337-5100.
