Indiana’s kitchen claim to fame
Columnist shares noted chef Gary Sanders’ Petite Lobster BLT recipe and notes from readers that add to the storied kitchen career of the late chef.
A column tribute I wrote last week about the death of Chef Gary Sanders, 53, and recounting the two decades of menu memories he provided guests at his Miller Bakery Café in Gary inspired many responses from readers.
During his career, Sanders not only served dining patrons from throughout Chicagoland, Northwest Indiana, Michigan and beyond, but also the appetites of visiting luminaries. ABC News anchor Peter Jennings, Martha Stewart and Donald Trump all pulled up a chair to Sanders’ table during his 1989-2010 culinary tenure at Miller Bakery Café.
I’m grateful to readers who also wrote me to help with additional details to fill in any gaps about Chef Gary’s storied kitchen career, such as the following missives:
Hi Phil:
Just for the record, Miller Bakery Cafe was opened in 1989 by two longtime Miller Beach residents, Robyn Feeley and Dann Niven. We were not from Chicago. We hired Gary and sold the restaurant to him in 1993. I was raised in Miller from about 1965.
Dann was originally from Lansing. We built a home there in the early 80s, and when the neighborhood began to gentrify, I saw an opportunity with the old Miller Bakery building, which is where, as kids, we got all of our birthday cakes. The realtor was a neighbor of ours, and so we bought the building, painstakingly renovated it, and as luck or fate would have it, we found Gary: a baby faced 21-year-old with amazing training and equally amazing talent. As I remember, we were the first “new” business on Lake Street in 25 years. I left the area 27 years ago, came back for a year, and had an incredible art opening at the Marshall Gardner Art Center last summer. So, I was lucky to see Gary last year prior to his Bartlett’s closing, and now, super sad to hear of his passing. A very sad and tragic story. Best regards,
Robyn Feeley
In addition, my earlier column also neglected to mention the true roots of the restaurant’s start as a true bakery, as hinted in Feeley’s note to me. There was also one last reopening attempt for the restaurant after Chef Gary closed it in 2010, which was explained to me late last week by the establishment’s final owner via an email:
Dear Phil,
Great column. But thought you should know that Miller Bakery Cafe was not “a dining landmark near the lake since 1941” as you described it. It was a traditional bakery for more than 45 years, from 1941 until it was closed as a bakery operation sometime in the late 1980s. It became a dining restaurant for the first time in 1989. My family then bought the building in 2012 from the bank, after it was foreclosed upon, and we reopened it as the same dining name in 2013 (but no involvement with Gary). We closed the restaurant last December.
Best regards,
Diana Raitt
In May 2000, when I interviewed Chef Gary after the latest Zagat’s Restaurant Guide published, he was being hailed as the culinary kitchen wizard personally responsible for “bringing niche dining to Northwest Indiana.”
“Opening a restaurant like this in Gary had people saying we were crazy,” he told me.
“It feels good to show them they were wrong. Today, we’re the big fish in the little pond that’s attracting diners from Chicago. It’s a great compliment to hear you’ve become a dining destination.”
One of Chef Gary’s biggest champion backers in print was my late newsroom colleague and friend Pat Colander, publisher of Lake and Shore magazines. She not only considered Chef Gary and his wife, Chef Nicole Bissonnette, as well as their young chef son Ian Marcel, her neighbors (since she had a weekend beach house in Miller), but also dear friends.
In August 2005, Pat was particularly proud when Chef Gary’s recipes were including in a 160-page hardcover cookbook titled “Indiana Cooks! Great Restaurant Recipes for the Home Kitchen” (2005 Indiana University Press $29.95) by Christine Barbour and Scott Feickert. Chef Gary was one of 15 of “Indiana’s Best Chefs” to be highlighted, along with his signature recipes for Olive Oil Poached Salmon with Heirloom Tomatoes, Australian Rack of Lamb with Black Truffle Potatoes and Bittersweet Chocolate Marquise with Chambord Raspberries.
Pat and co-host John Cain, executive director of South Shore Arts, often called upon the innovative recipe talents of Chef Gary and Chef Nicole to donate their menu magic to an annual “mystery dinner” event auctioned off to benefit South Shore Arts, and promoted heavily in the splashy pages of Shore magazine. Pat loved Chef Gary’s easy recipe for Petite Lobster BLTs adorned with a garlic mayonnaise, which was also one of his recipes highlighted in the “Indiana Cooks!” 2005 published cookbook.