Marietta cafe brings community together

It’s 11:30 a.m. Thursday in Marietta. The village’s four-way intersection is deserted. Not a soul is stirring.

But just a block away, Mimi’s Cafe has 16 cars around its outside. Inside, seven of its eight tables are filled with people. The noise level is a pleasant hum.

An 80-year-old waitress has three plates of foods on her arms as she moves toward a table of hungry customers. At a side table, Ronald Stringer sits with three of his buddies who have been here since breakfast and may stay the afternoon, too.

This is Mimi’s Cafe, and most people here are not from Marietta. They’ve come from an estimated average of 25 miles away. Why? That’s a good question. The reason, while understandable once you’ve been here yourself, defies a precise explanation.

Let’s try.

Good food is first, and the qualifier here is, “Mimi will make anything you want the way you want it. Just ask,” a customer said.

Then, there’s the good service in one large room where the kitchen is close to the customer. It’s neighborly and efficient, meaning there’s no hurry and only a reasonable wait.

The person at cash register, where you also place your order, is the owner, Paul Green, the grandfatherly type. His wife, Mary, is Mimi the cook. She’s the one who always wanted a restaurant, her friends say.

And so, six years ago, she got her wish and opened Mimi’s in Marietta.

There’s more.

Simple, clear surroundings are reflected in a simple, clear menu. One daily lunch special is offered. Here’s a list. Monday is meatloaf, Tuesday is smothered steak, Wednesday is beef tips and Thursday is pork chops.

Mimi’s open time is simple, too. It’s 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. with Fridays and Sundays closed. On Wednesdays, the Greens close early in the afternoon at 2 to assist the community’s Oak Grove Baptist Church with the food for its fellowship gathering that evening.

For six years, this is the way it has been. After Mary and Paul Green opened Mimi’s Cafe in 2012, business has been, as the saying goes, good.

Their helpers last week were Mary Jo Murphy, the 80-year-older who has been with the business since its opening and intends to continue indefinitely, and Cheyenne Keener, who may be newer but is just as smiling, friendly and efficient.

Altogether it’s one business, one community and one good time. It’s a working recipe for Mimi and her cafe.

Staff photos by Neil Abeles ■ Cass County Sheriff Larry Rowe returns to his table in busy Mimi’s Cafe of Marietta.

■ It’s comforting to have owner and grandfatherly Paul Green at the register.

■ ABOVE: From as far away as Mount Pleasant, Lisa Derrick and grandson, at left, and Rayford and Janie Huffman have come to eat at Mimi’s Cafe in Marietta. ■ LEFT: Mary Green of Mimi’s Cafe smiles because she enjoys having a restaurant that feeds a...

■ Asked about coming to Mimi’s Cafe in Marietta, Jeremiah Henderson, 11, of Douglassville, simply said, “I love it here.” He’s with his grandmother Linda Henderson.