hISTORY bEHIND mimis

In 2018 a beautiful and hard-working family from Europe opened Mimi's Star Café.

Jessie and her husband, Chipi, named the café after the endearment Jessie called her elder

son. Jessie and her husband put all their heart and effort into Mimi’s Star Café, but decided the café wasn't the right fit for them. With the financial assistance of extended family, the Barrientos family purchased Mimi's Star Cafe in 2019. Lucy Barrientos is the fourth child of seven from a broken marriage. When Lucy was twelve years old, their dad passed away. This made their lives complicated financially since he was the only provider for this family. One of the eldest sisters, Margarita, was the only one able to help economically. She worked as a server in a Mexican restaurant. In a short period of time, the family noticed that even though Maggi was doing everything she could to support her own family and siblings, it simply was not enough. Lucy, being the sister just younger than Maggi, knew that she needed to start working as well to support the younger siblings. At the age of fourteen, she left her small village to work as a maid in Leon Guanajuato working seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., earning a total of $750 pesos per week. Today that is equivalent to $34 US, which is not much help to support the family, but according to Lucy’s thinking at least it was one mouth less to feed. In that way, she could reduce some of her sister’s burden. Margarita is the sister whom Lucy admires the most. Not only because she supported and stood up for her family at the age of seventeen, but because she taught Lucy precious values, like treating people as she wants to be treated, to show love to anyone without caring about race, status or color, because we all are human beings and we are not perfect. We all have sinned and will continue sinning. But the most important  thing she taught Lucy is to be grateful to Jehovah God for everything we are capable of doing and being. Lucy arrived in the United States on February 14, 2006, on a Monday, and started working as a busgirl. Not knowing English at all was a huge struggle for her because she didn’t even know how to ask for the restroom! To this day, she is still not confident in her English. For years Lucy has been waitressing at Mexican restaurants, but she had a dream of having her own family restaurant. She managed to convince her husband, Noel Salguero, to buy Mimi’s Star Café when she saw that it was up for sale. This was not an easy endeavor! They had to invest everything  they had saved for the last eight years, and more, to buy their own home. Also, Lucy’s husband, Noel, had started his own landscaping business, which he loved doing and was starting to do really well.  Noel gave up his dream job, something that he really enjoyed, to become Mimi’s Star Café's main chef. Their savings weren’t enough to buy Mimi’s Star Cafe so they had to ask for help from some of their closest family members. Included were four of Lucy’s siblings: Celia Barrientos, the one who keeps Mimi’s Star Café clean and sanitary on weekends, and takes care of the children on weekdays;  Margarita Barrientos, the one who bosses everyone around! She can do any position; Alma Barrientos is a soul full of energy who takes care of the customers by  serving them along with her husband, Hammad Malik, and her sister, Lucy Barrientos. Last but not least of the siblings that helped purchase Mimi’s was Salvador Barrientos. He has decided not to be included in the business of running the café. From Noel’s family, his brothers, Elmer Salguero, Ávida Salguero and Yamilet, his wife, Elder Salguero and Adrian Salguero all helped financially as well. They are not the only ones that we have to thank for helping make Mimi’s Star Café stay in business! Lucy has friends who have always been there for her: Jimmie Evans, Yesica Perez, Kareny Garcia, and Abraham Mendoza. There are many more people that Mimi’s Star Café has to thank! Specifically, all of its customers, because Mimi’s without them is nothing! A special thanks to  Burley and his wife Linda, Gary Downs and his wife Diane,Tom And wife kim kee, Bubba, Stuart Chambers, George Lynch Jr, John Mattioli, David Nunn, Tom and his wife, Nancy, Laura Anne Ayres, Mark Menzies, David Rick Smith, Mr. Steve Dennis and his wife, all of whom have become, not only loyal customers, but friends to the Barrientos family.