He's cooked for three United States presidents. His restaurants have earned Michelin stars. Yet, sitting in his new restaurant space at the San Francisco 49ers' Levi's Stadium, renowned chef, Michael Mina, says he's having the most fun he's ever enjoyed in his career.
When Levi's Stadium opened its doors to football fans for the stadium's first NFL game, featuring the Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers, fans were not only met with the surprising luxury the stadium holds. Rather, they were greeted by a brand new tailgating experience that was 23-years in the making.
Mina grew up in Washington in an age where fans could only view the local NFL team's game on television on Sunday afternoons. For Mina, that game was the Seattle Seahawks' broadcast. When asked if growing up in Washington made him a Seahawks fan, Mina responded, "Oh my God! I spent 18-years in Washington; I love Washington state, all of my family is still there. Back when I was growing up, you only got to watch one game on Sundays. We had to watch the Seahawks every week and it was so painful and agonizing. During game breaks, they would always show the 49ers. I would wait for those game breaks to see Joe Montana or Ronnie Lott do something. That's how I became a 49ers fan."
Mina's passion for the 49ers has been burning since he was 12-years-old. It was that fandom that drove him to San Francisco. Literally. A Monday Night Football match-up on December 3, 1990 saw a meeting between the 49ers and New York Giants that many believe was the best game played in the teams' rivalry. As luck would have it, Mina's friend had an extra ticket for the game. “The reason I came to San Francisco, is because a friend of mine called me and said he had tickets to the Giants-49ers Monday Night Football game. I drove about 90 miles per hour from Washington the whole way straight through. It was the game where Ronnie Lott and Phil Simms got into each other's faces. It was awesome! And it was the first time I was in San Francisco," Mina recalled.
After that Monday Night Football game, Mina realized there was more for him in San Francisco than his beloved football team. Rather, there was a home. Since that day nearly 24-years ago, Mina's Bay Area restaurants, including his namesake Michael Mina and Bourbon Steak San Francisco, have become San Francisco cuisine staples. And more importantly--at least for Mina--Mina has never had to rely on a friend for an extra ticket for 49ers games again, as he's been a season ticket holder ever since.
As season ticket holders, Mina, his wife, Diane and the couple's two sons, Sammy and Anthony, would gather every Sunday in the parking lot of Candlestick Park to tailgate. To understand the Mina's tailgate party, you must first take everything you know about tailgate parties and throw it out the window. The Mina's tailgate parties were first-class affairs. There were fountains of warm cheese fondue with truffle oil. There were Diane's famous Bloody Mary's, made with her homegrown Japanese heirloom tomatoes. There were celebrity chefs who would pop into town when their favorite team played the 49ers and bring a dish to the party. There were hundreds of people gathered around coolers of beer and wine brought by some of California's most renowned wine makers. It was a tailgate party. And then some.
"Charlie Palmer is a huge Giants fan, so if we played them, I'd get a call from him asking for six tickets. I'd tell him he had to make a dish if he wanted them. The tailgate parties would become crazy, because everyone made a dish. We had the whole set up--burners and all. We cooked crazy food other there. Everyone knew where to find us--at Pole E, between D and F where the 49ers flag was waving," Mina recalled.
When the 49ers announced the building of Levi's Stadium, Mina got an idea: What if he could take his tailgate party inside of the stadium? What if he could take the elaborateness of his parking lot tailgate parties and bring it to 49ers fans on a greater scale? Luckily for Mina, the 49ers were game for his idea.
During a chance meeting in Green Bay, Wisconsin Mina learned that the 49ers had retail space available on the ground level of Levi's Stadium. Seeing an opportunity, Mina not only proposed the possibility of opening a Bourbon Steak and a Bourbon Pub restaurant on the site, but bringing his tailgate party indoors for fans to experience. "Michael is friends with Ron Conway, an angel investor in the valley. We invited Ron to go on the trip with us to Green Bay and Michael came along. We were sitting in Lombardi's in Green Bay and we came to find out Michael is a massive 49ers fan. He asked us about our food vision and when we told him, he said it lined up with what he was doing. We said that we had areas open for restaurants, but none of the concepts fit our vision for Levi's Stadium. For us, it had to be the perfect mesh of a visionary cook who was also a visionary fan. There are a ton of great chefs in California, but Michael had that flare as he's been a season ticket holder for 23 years and shows up in his gear to support the team even without any connection to it. He then said he had the perfect idea, with his tailgate. We felt like it was different than anything that had been done before and we wanted to push the needle on things that hadn't been done before," 49ers chief operating officer, Al Guido said.
In the months that followed that Green Bay meeting, plans came together for Michael Mina's Tailgate. Billed as the ultimate game day experience, 49ers ticket holders have the option to purchase a $5,000 membership to the tailgate party. The membership includes all food and drinks and access to Mina's space in Levi's Stadium before games and through halftime. There, members find well beyond simple parking lot tailgate food and drink. Rather, it is fresh lobster cooked in three giant pots that Mina says are capable of cooking 600 total lobsters at a time. It's homemade San Francisco cioppino that is made with a base of crabs that are wood fired on customized grills that Mina helped design. It's rotisserie ox, waygu beef and free range jidori chicken that is cooked on the one-and-a-half story tall rotisseries that instantly draw the eyes of anyone entering the space. It's a specialized weekly menu featuring foods particular to the opposing team's locale and oftentimes, cooked by the most famous chef from that locale. "The heart and soul of a tailgate is staying within the theme of cooking outside. We are going to elevate that and add some different components to the dishes where people know they are getting the 'wow' factor of my cooking, but more than anything else, are still being connected to what a tailgate is all about. It's important to me that we capture the true spirit of a tailgate party for our guests," Mina said.
As if the menu isn't enough, the 49ers have included other perks alongside Michael Mina's Tailgate membership. These perks include the option to travel to road games with the team and chalk talks with the team's coaches. Overall, the team sees Michael Mina's Tailgate as providing an important premium experience to its fans. "For us, we took a look at the footprint of our building. We have 9,000 club seats, but a lot of people who want a premium experience didn't buy a club seat. For these people, the all-encompassing tailgate experience was the way to go," Guido noted.
The 49ers have also ensured that every fan can experience Mina's cooking. After halftime, the tailgate party ends and Mina's Bourbon Steak & Pub opens to the public. The restaurants are also open daily and the space may be rented for special events.
For one of the 49ers' biggest fans, the tailgate party just got a whole lot bigger and better. Yet, while Mina recognizes that his tailgate party has "grown up," he is focused on maintaining the atmosphere and energy that his parties created back in the parking lot of Candlestick Park. "This is not a replacement for people tailgating. People tailgating is what makes this place. I want this to be another tailgate. The hope is, that what people experience inside of these walls is really my tailgate party," Mina said.
