Watts Tea Shop – 103 years and counting

photos by Kevin C. Groen

Watts Tea Shop
761 N. Jefferson Street
Milwaukee, WI 53202
414-290-5720

Tom Millot is one of those rare managers who actually wants his employees to learn how to do his job. As Executive Chef of Watts Tea Shop, he fosters leadership qualities in his staff of 14 full and part timers. “I love my staff. They respect what I try to do and the reverse. We have a team concept. We’re always looking to go forward. Besides myself, we have three staffers who can produce any of our baked goods,” he says proudly beaming ear to ear. “You’re only as good as your team.”

If Millot sounds like a major league coach, it may be because he’s always been a team player: at home, on the field and in the kitchen. Raised in a family of 11 children, he says, “Everybody pitched in. Sometimes there were too many cooks and not enough elbowroom. We didn’t even fathom eating out, we were so used to eating off the land. We were on a tight budget and that has helped me in my profession. It keeps waste to a minimum and you value everything.”

Everyone in the Millot family was expected to be at the dinner table on time. “That was very important for bonding with family. There’s not enough of that [today]. Everybody’s in a hurry to go nowhere fast.”

Summers in Hartland, when not doing chores, Millot played baseball in six leagues, several games a day, seven days a week. However, he decided on a career in cooking in his teens and some years later found a lifelong mentor and friend in Louis Danegelis, Senior Chef Instructor at Waukesha County Technical College, where the young chef studied. “He taught me passion. Passion for what I do for my career, with food and more importantly with the people you work with and manage – the culinary team. He taught that the speed of the leader is speed of the team.”

“Cross train yourself and your employees. Having an employee adept at doing any job duty within your framework, giving them a sense and feeling of leadership, that’s what he taught me and I try to pass that on.”

Millot did double duty with Danegelis, studying by day and working nights and weekends at his catering company, Lee John’s. “He instilled confidence in me and helped me overcome my doubts. I have no fear of failure. Louis said when the pressure’s on, the only thing you can do is pin your ears back, pray and go for it and you will get through the day.” It was advice Millot has applied throughout his career from working as Corporate Chef at QuadGraphics to opening the Union House in Genesee Depot.

As a result of this attitude, Millot can not only stand the heat in the kitchen, he thrives on it. “I want to get slammed, otherwise you don’t make any money. Titles aside, when everyone works together, they begin to work instinctively. It’s the ultimate satisfaction”

These philosophies are consistent with those of George Watts, whose grandfather opened the tearoom above the family china shop in 1904. One of Milwaukee’s favorite sons, Watts was a man who spoke his mind and lived his beliefs. As Millot fondly recalls, “[Watts] had a huge heart. All employees loved him and he told his employees he loved them and he was sincere about it.”

While the restaurant celebrated its centennial three years ago, many of the tea shop recipes go back further than that. Generations of Milwaukeeans have grown up on Watts’ chicken salad on homemade whole wheat bread, chicken soup as good as mom’s and their renowned Sunshine Cake: three layers of moist sponge filled with French custard and napped with frothy seven-minute frosting.

“I firmly believed I’ve improved even the traditional recipes even though they’re intact,” says the chef. “Our chicken is fresh, never frozen, all boneless and skinless. We don’t have a deep fryer. We use the healthiest oils, extra virgin olive oil and grapeseed oil, for anything sautéed.”

Partial to fish, Millot has added a pecan-crusted tilapia to the menu. And he talked George Watts, a Christian Scientist, into introducing a small wine list due to customer demand. The chef’s vision for the future is for more healthful selections. “If I could, in a fantasy world, I’d just make salads.”

His new menu will incorporate more vegetarian and vegan specials. “People used to think of vegetarian food as blah, but there are so many complex flavors and textures. Those are challenges I like: to create a symphony of flavors with beautiful plate appearance.” VS