Mimi's Cafe has closed its Folsom location at 2719 E. Bidwell St. in Broadstone Plaza, ending a 25-year run for the French-inspired restaurant along the city's busy retail corridor. The closure leaves just one Mimi's Cafe standing in the entire Sacramento region, at 9195 W. Stockton Blvd. in Elk Grove.
The Folsom restaurant announced its closure with a note posted on its door, according to the Sacramento Bee, which first reported the shutdown. The Sacramento Business Journal reported the closure on Sunday, and the newspaper notes that Sacramento-area customers must now travel to Elk Grove for the region's remaining restaurant. The Folsom location had operated inside Broadstone Plaza, a roughly 532,000-square-foot regional shopping center anchored by retailers including Cost Plus World Market, Ashley HomeStore, and American Furniture Warehouse, according to ACF Property Management, which notes the plaza sits along East Bidwell Street near Highway 50.
A Chain Founded on a Wartime Memory
Mimi's Cafe was founded in 1978 by Arthur Sims and his son, Thomas Sims, who joined his father in the restaurant business in 1974, per the Bee's reporting. The elder Sims opened a series of cafes after being stationed in France during World War II, where, according to Orlando Weekly, he met a French woman named Mimi during a liberation celebration where she served him champagne and artichokes. Sims later ran the commissary at MGM Studios before turning the bistro concept into a full-fledged chain, the Bee reports.
The brand is described as a casual-dining, French-inspired restaurant chain, and it grew well beyond its California roots. By 2013, when the chain was sold, it had 145 locations and generated $380 million in annual revenue, according to Groupe Le Duff at the time. Of those 145 locations, 57 were in California, and the chain reported having 24 locations in Southern California alone, according to the company's website.
A Steep Financial Fall From Its Peak
Mimi's Cafe reached a peak size of 146 locations nationwide in April 2010 under Bob Evans Farms ownership before undergoing a continuous retraction down to 39 total locations today, as reported by Nation's Restaurant News in coverage relayed via Facebook. Bob Evans had acquired the chain's parent company, SWH Corporation, for $182 million back in 2004, when it had just 81 locations across 10 states and was preparing for an initial public offering, according to the Los Angeles Times at the time.
Groupe Le Duff's U.S. arm then purchased Mimi's Cafe from Bob Evans in 2013 for $50 million — a loss of more than 70 percent from the 2004 purchase price. Groupe Le Duff, a privately held conglomerate that owns several other French-inspired restaurant chains, later rebranded the chain as Mimi's Bistro & Bakery in July 2019 and introduced private-label French wines, an effort to course-correct after an aggressive 2013 menu overhaul had added 30 complex French dishes that alienated core customers and staff, per Nation's Restaurant News.
Sacramento's Mimi's Footprint Keeps Shrinking
Folsom's closure follows a string of Sacramento-area shutdowns. The South Natomas location closed in 2015, the Roseville location at 1104 Galleria Blvd. closed in early 2024, and the Arden Arcade location closed last year. Roseville Today reported that after the Roseville restaurant closed, local planning filings were submitted to redevelop that building into a Fogo de Chão Brazilian steakhouse.
The chain's contraction has claimed sites well beyond the Sacramento region, too. The original flagship Mimi's Cafe on North Euclid Street in Anaheim, opened by Arthur Sims in December 1978, permanently closed in October 2018 after 40 years of operation, with the company offering displaced employees transfers to its remaining Orange County stores at the time. In Colorado, a former two-story Mimi's Cafe building in Lone Tree was taken over by a steakhouse earlier this year.
What Comes Next for the Folsom Space
Even as Mimi's Cafe retreats, the East Bidwell Street corridor where it operated has stayed in high demand. WhatNow Sacramento reported in May that the strip has seen rapid restaurant turnover, with nearby closed spaces such as Red Hot Chilli Pepper, Five Guys, and Saigon Alley quickly leased by new food concepts. It remains unclear what will move into the former Broadstone Plaza space, or whether the Elk Grove location plans to keep operating as Mimi's corporate footprint continues to contract nationwide.
