Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger

Las Vegas Chefs

Two of America's most beloved chefs, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger have been business partners for over 20 years. They are currently hands-on owner-operators of the popular and critically acclaimed Border Grill restaurants in Las Vegas and Santa Monica, serving upscale, modern Mexican food in a hip, urban cantina setting. The pair also own and operate Ciudad restaurant in Downtown Los Angeles, featuring the bold and seductive flavors of the Latin world.

Trailblazers from the start, these classically trained culinary grads (Susan from The Culinary Institute of America and Mary Sue from Washburne Culinary Institute) met in 1978 at Le Perroquet, one of Chicago's best French restaurants. They
were the first women to break into the all-male kitchen.

In 1981, Mary Sue and Susan opened their first restaurant in Los Angeles, City Cafe, which quickly outgrew its little space and moved to a larger site. CITY Restaurant (1985-1994) changed the culinary landscape of L.A. forever with eclectic dishes from Thailand, India, and Mexico, as well as France, Italy, and their mother's own recipe boxes. In 1985, Mary Sue and Susan turned the old City Cafe site into Border Grill, a "taco stand" serving authentic home cooking and street foods of Mexico. It too outgrew the tiny space and in 1990 moved to its current home in Santa Monica. In 1998, the partners opened Ciudad in Downtown Los Angeles, and in 1999, the Border Grill concept grew to encompass the location at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

Natural teachers, the partners are prolific in many media outlets. They are authors of five cookbooks, including Cooking with Too Hot Tamales, Mesa Mexicana, and City Cuisine. They are television veterans, appearing on 396 episodes of the popular Too Hot Tamales and Tamales World Tour programs on Food Network. Since 1996, they have had several homes on the radio dial in Los Angeles, including KCRW, KFWB, and KFI. In addition, Border Grill and Ciudad dishes “starred” in the 2001 Samuel Goldwyn feature film, Tortilla Soup. Mary Sue and Susan are also the creators of the Border Girls brand of fresh prepared foods at Whole Foods Market, as well as a line of signature peppermills and salt mills manufactured by Vic Firth Gourmet.

Mary Sue and Susan are also active members of the community, playing leading roles in many culinary associations and charities, notably Share Our Strength, the Scleroderma Research Foundation, the Chefs Collaborative, and Women Chefs and Restaurateurs. At the core, Mary Sue and Susan's love of food shines through and is intermingled with their love of interacting with customers and staff. They still take time to teach cooking classes and their days are spent in the kitchen, writing and testing recipes, creating menus, managing their businesses, and creating new products. Most nights you can still find them visiting with guests and working with staff at their restaurants. More than twenty years into their partnership, these girls keep pushing the borders.