After twelve years, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger are closing their downtown restaurant Ciudad. But don't worry, the doors won't be shut for long: the chefs will be reopening the restaurant in October as a Border Grill. Their other Border Grill, more a casual cantina than the upscale Ciudad, is in Santa Monica.

“It's a little bittersweet,” said Milliken this afternoon. “But it was time for a change.” Milliken says that the new Border Grill will be “totally different” from the one that's currently open, with more of a “communal dining atmosphere, something that will fit into downtown more than [it would have] twelve years ago.”

Milliken, who just spent some time in Mexico hanging out with Diana Kennedy, says that she and Feniger have been talking about all kinds of things and that the menu will be an evolution of what they're doing currently. As for the space, the chefs are talking with the same mural artists with whom they've been working for the last 30 years to “transform” the place.

To fête their restaurant, Milliken and Feniger are throwing a Last Days of Ciudad Celebration, starting today, September 10th, and running through October 2nd. While supplies last, they're giving out $10 dining cards, and in the near future there will be other specials as well as a chance to win a Border Grill Truck party for 25 people, and tickets to the exclusive Border Grill Downtown LA Grand Opening. Fun times, with margaritas.

Ciudad: 445 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles; (213) 486-5171.

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