Restaurant Review: Mimi's Cafe Gainesville

I've been to Mimi's Cafe in Gainesville twice, with two VERY different experiences. The first time I went to Mimi's was for a lunch meeting with a good friend. I arrived a little early and waited in the lobby/entry for a few minutes. I saw several people come in to pickup their to-go orders. There is a special alcove for to-go ordering and pickup, which was a nice touch. There is a small bar area which looked inviting, but I did not go through it carefully. I saw two dining rooms. One looked like a diner and the other looked like an inviting cabin. When my lunch date arrived, she was greeted very sweetly, the staff knew her by name, and she asked to sit on the cabin-side because its quieter.  Here are my thoughts on lunch.

Service - Fantastic. Not hovering, nor did I feel like I would have to waive anyone down. 

Staff - Very sweet and warm. While I waited in the front for my friend, I wasn't pestered or asked over and over if I was waiting for something. On that same note, I also did not feel ignored. 

Decor - The lobby and the cabin-like dining rooms are beautiful. Very warm and inviting. The dining room has a huge ceiling with wooden beams, private booths, and a very pleasant decor overall.

Restroom - Didn't visit the restroom on this visit.

Food Quality - Very fresh. We both ordered salads, and everything was beautiful.

Food Prep - Excellent. I asked for no croutons on my chicken Caesar, and there wasn't as much as a crumb on my plate. I felt very safe. The lettuce was dried properly, so it didn't water down the dressing.

Food Taste - Wonderful! Fresh, light, creamy, rich, and crisp. 

Overall, I was very impressed with Mimi's Cafe, and couldn't wait to go back. I sang its praise to my husband so often, that we decided to go for dinner a few nights ago.  And it was like stepping into an alternate universe in some aspects. Things could not have been more different with the food and decor.

Service - Again, this was first rate. Our server asked our names, then spoke to us, using our names as if he had known us for ever. He had great things to say about what we ordered. My husband mentioned his Celiac Disease, and asked for a dish to be prepared without the breading, which the kitchen did graciously. He had chicken cordon blueI, with steamed broccoli. I ordered a steak, scalloped potatoes, and a grilled shrimp skewer with a glass of Chardonnay. 

Staff - The staff was very nice, but in the background I could see them goofing off in a separate section of the dining room separated by a curtain. 

Decor - This time, we sat in the "other" dining room. And I now know why my friend requested the cabin-like dining room on my first visit. Ugh! The dining room to the right is like a bad diner or cafeteria. God-awful pleather booths, partial dividers between booths made of glass with strange brass accents, at least one was broken, and the glass dividers did nothing for sound control. I was very aware of the conversation of the ladies 3 booths down on the opposite side of us.

Restroom - Beautiful! One stall was out of order, but the overall cleanliness was excellent, and the brass sink was beautiful. I'm always happy to see a clean restroom in a restaurant!

Food Quality - Horrible. Simply horrible. I'm not convinced there was a fresh ingredient on either of our plates. My husbands broccoli had old, dried, brown stems and some florets were brown and soggy as well. His chicken was dry, and he wasn't impressed. My steak was ok. I asked for a sauce on the side that had have been jarred and microwaved, and was NOT gluten free, we discovered later that night. My grilled shrimp skewer was frozen shrimp that had been thawed and then warmed on the flat-top. My scalloped potatoes were from a box, they were pasty, gross, overly salty, mushy, and overall yucky. I feel they weren't GF either. (We were not told there was a GF menu until after we had ordered. Our fault for not asking.)

Food Prep - I'm fairly certain everything was microwaved and came either frozen or prepackaged. My steak was cooked wonderfully, but the sauce was salty, jarred, and barely warm. In fact, all of the food on my plate was moderately cold when it came to the table.

Food Taste - My steak was nicely seasoned. My potatoes were salty, from a package, and had been microwaved. The sauce was salty and tasted like the can it came from. My Chardonnay wasn't. I'm not sure what that substance was, but it was as far from a Chardonnay as I think I've had. It was sour and bitter.

Overall, this second experience was horrible. Our server was wonderful, but the food and decor were just awful, and you go out to eat for food and ambiance. Otherwise, you eat your own food at home.  I was embarrassed because I had been telling my husband how spectacular it had been the other time. This supper was the ending to our anniversary day spent kid-free, and we were both very disappointed. Due to our gluten reactions, we both felt pretty yucky after, and since one of my reactions is irritability and grumpiness, I huffed on up to bed and went to sleep instead of watching a movie as we had planned.

Based on this, we won't be going back to Mimi's Cafe in Gainesville. But, if I ever find myself there, ill be sure to order a salad only.

Sweetness

What's a girl to do? White sugar, sugar in the raw, sugar substitute, zero calorie "all natural", honey, agave, aspartame, saccharin, equal, nutra sweet, sweet-n-low, truvia, stevia, stevia in the raw, pure cane, coconut, high fructose corn syrup, JESUS, make it stop. 

Remember when the major world controversy was simply between which beverage had more "sugar"... Coke or Kool-Aid? Moms across America were turning their noses up at one another for making the wrong choice. Oh, the horror!

So what do I offer my friends and family on the rare occasion when a sweet substance is requested as an additive to a food or beverage? Do I designate an entire closet in my home as a sweetener of choice? Of course I know this is silly and ridiculous, and I'm not doing it, but being a southern woman, we're trained from birth to be fabulous hostesses, serve only the best, and to accommodate EVERYONE, so yeah, there is a teeny part of me saying, "You know you need to have all options available. What if one of your friends is unhappy at one of your parties?"

Do I regulate with an iron fist what my own family consumes? Yes, I do 97.3% of the shopping, and 99.7% of the cooking, but I also want my Honey to enjoy his sweet tea, and I myself love a sweet and creamy mug of coffee (or 5) in the morning. 

Next, how do I "know" which report to believe? One day "all natural" is best, one day the zero calorie substitutes are best, one day "sugar is sugar, your body can't tell the difference", one day "this" plant's derivative is better than yesterday's plant derivative. Understandably this is a nerve racking topic. 

I read, I asked friends and family, and I thought I had it narrowed down. Honey, sugar in the raw, and truvia in the raw. I've tried them all in my coffee (not at once, mind you) and I don't like any of them. The one I've heard good things about, and have not yet tried is coconut crystals. I bet Wegmans has them so I'll have to check them out this weekend. Think my Honey will give me a morning kid-free to wander the isles of Wegmans alone?  Here's hoping!  

Painting for Funny Grand Daddy

Here is the painting the kids and I made for my father for Fathers Day. 

The red feet and hands are mine. The black ones are my 4.5 year old son, and the purple ones are those of my 3 year old daughter. 

The technique was exactly like the ones we made for my husband that I wrote about in the earlier post. 

Gluten Free Family

After a few months of abdominal pains, loss of appetite, digestive issues, and having to visit the potty upwards of 10 to 12 times a day, we have a diagnosis of Celiac Disease for my husband that was obtained from a biopsy during a colonoscopy. 

My sister also has Celiac and though my blood tests are negative, I react terribly to gluten. My first colonoscopy will be next year, so ill get the biopsy then, and we'll find out if I also have Celiac, or if I have a very strong Gluten Intolerance of some other kind.

We have two kids who have what's called "chicken skin" on the backs of their arms. I just read the other day that this is an early sign of Celiac in children. Since Celiac is hereditary, the chances that the bumps on our kids arms are in fact indicators that the Mini's have some degree of a gluten sensitivity too is very high. 

So, here we go into a world of being an entire Gluten Free family. We're easing the kids into it though. I'm not a proponent of elimination diets if its not warranted, but on the same token, it's easier to get them use to this lifestyle early. 

The girl is a Mac-n-Cheesr fanatic, and the boy can eat his weight in chicken nuggets and PB&J. Replacing packaged foods laden with gluten with a non-gluten taste-a-like is expensive, so I don't want to go in that direction. 

I love to cook, as I'm sure you've seen, so this won't really be an issue for me, but I will need to gather ideas for things the kids will enjoy and that wont break the bank. I'm going to learn to make kid-friendly meals that I can quickly put together for lunches. It's funny to me that lunch seems to be my Achilles Heel. Breakfast is easy. Eggs or Chex cereal. Dinner is easy too. Meats, veggies, rice. But what do I make for the kids for lunch? I like salads, but they don't. I need ideas.

 

   

Fathers Day Paintings

For Fathers Day this year, we made paintings using our feet and hands. I bought 3 canvases from the craft store. They are 16x20 and $12.99 each. We bought 2. One for Daddy from our 3 year old girl, and one for Daddy from our 4 year old boy. The acrylic craft pain was on sale for $.77 each, so we bought 8, and then an inexpensive set of large brushes and a semi-nice set of smaller art brushes. 

For less than $50.00 we were able to give Daddy a gift that won't be electronically obsolete in a year, out of style in a few years, or wear out ... EVER. It's a marker of childhood with their little hands and feet set in immortality. It was fun for us to make together, the kids picked their colors, and though it was so cool when they were done. 

I did the painting in the kitchen for easy cleanup. I debated the kids bathroom, but the kitchen was MUCH easier, and looking back, I'm VERY happy with the kitchen choice. 

I did one at a time so I didn't have to keep 4 paint covered feet and 4 paint covered hands still and off walls, floors, cabinets, and each other. 

I put each kid on the island and used paper plates to squirt the paint into. I used the large flat brush to paint their feet green, then pressed them onto the canvas to make the leaves for the flower. Then I painted their hands with the 2 colors they wanted for their flowers and they spread their fingers wide and made the handprint flowers. Then I painted different colors on their feet with the green still on, and put their feet on to make the butterfly.  

Then I simply picked up the paint-covered child and sat her/him on the counter next to the kitchen sink, and washed their hands and feet in the kitchen sink. Dried them off, and sent them out to play while I finished the details. 

I used a wine cork dipped in black for the butterfly heads, and used the craft paint brushes to paint the stems on the flowers and the body's on the butterflies. The grass was brushed on one and just squirted on the other. 

Like I said before, it was a lot of fun to make. I think they turned out beautifully. Daddy LOVES them, and they'll never be out of style or become obsolete. 

Check Please.

I'm a check-list girl. I'm also a procrastinator, and I don't like being told what to do. But for some reason, if I make my checklist, I'm much better about getting it done. 

This started at my first real big-girl job, where I was running the financials and HR and all other office work for a restaurant. My boss wanted me to use a check list because there were about a thousand little tasks that all needed to be done and with my ADD, it was hard for me to keep on task. Even while taking my Ritalin, there were still times it was hard for me. When he suggested I use the check list I was annoyed. I've got SO MUCH to do, I don't have TIME to stop, highlight what I've done, and then go do another project. After several weeks of head-butting and stubbornness, he won. And I learned that the checklists took a lot of the *fog* out of my day. A large part of my panicky stress about my day and week was lifted with this simple checklist. It honestly acted like a map for me. 

Now that I'm running the business of a family, I find that I once again need a checklist. I think this will help me stay focused, not get overwhelmed, and not let things pile up. 

And, oh, how I do LOVE organizing things. So the thought of sitting down for a few hours and planning the activities and actions of the members of this organization is as relaxing to me as a day at the spa. Maybe more so, because a day at the spa would make me feel guilty and I'd start to dread the pile of work awaiting me when I got home. 

So today I shall create an organizational schedule. I'll write a mission statement, a financial plan, and delegate tasks according to skill level, ability, and degree of potty training and napping needs. 

No lie, I'm super excited!!