For years, it was a familiar stop for families craving stacks of pancakes, warm muffins and seemingly endless refills of coffee.
But another longtime California diner has now gone dark, marking the latest contraction for Mimi’s Cafe as the once-sprawling restaurant chain continues to downsize after almost 50 years in business.
The French-inspired casual dining brand, launched near Disneyland in 1978 and best known for comfort-food favorites such as club sandwiches, meatloaf and its signature butter toffee cake, has closed its Folsom, California, restaurant after a 25-year run.
The Mimi’s Cafe location at 2719 E Bidwell St. in Broadstone Plaza served its final customers on August 16, leaving only one remaining Mimi’s Cafe in the Sacramento area.
In a goodbye message taped to the door, the restaurant thanked loyal guests for their years of support and told regulars that employees would “miss seeing you around our tables.”
The Folsom shutdown underscores a steep nationwide pullback for Mimi’s Cafe, which has fallen from 145 restaurants in 2013 to just 39 locations in 10 states today — a reduction of 106 restaurants over that span.
California remains the chain’s strongest foothold, with 24 Mimi’s Cafe restaurants still operating, though most are now concentrated in Southern California.
Mimi’s Cafe was acquired from Bob Evans Farms by France-based Groupe Le Duff in 2013, at a time when the company said it had 145 restaurants and generated roughly $380 million in annual revenue.
Mimi’s Cafe has 24 locations in California, mostly in the south of the Golden State
The chain serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, with favourites including omelets, quiches, crepes, French pot roast and Chicken Cordon Bleu
Groupe Le Duff later sold the chain to California-based Elite Restaurant Group in February 2020.
No specific reason has been given for the latest Folsom closure. But the disappearance of the restaurant marks another blow for the chain in Northern California, where its footprint has been steadily eroded.
Mimi’s previously closed restaurants in Roseville in 2024, South Natomas in 2015 and Arden Arcade in 2025.
That leaves the Elk Grove restaurant, at 9195 W Stockton Blvd, as the only remaining Mimi’s in the Sacramento region.
And the Folsom restaurant is not simply sitting empty. Virtually everything inside has been put up for auction, giving fans a chance to buy a piece of the diner they once knew.
The online liquidation sale includes long booth sections, curved booth stations, French bistro chairs, wooden dining tables, pub tables, outdoor benches, mirrors and chalkboards.
The kitchen is being stripped out too, with commercial equipment including flat-top grills, broilers, an eight-burner range with dual ovens, refrigerators, a walk-in cooler and freezer and an ice maker among the items offered.
For generations of customers, Mimi’s was synonymous with leisurely breakfasts, freshly baked muffins and croissants and a menu packed with French-inspired dishes.
Mimi’s had around 80 locations when it was acquired by Bob Evans Farms in 2004. But its footprint has since collapsed, with dozens of restaurants disappearing over the past decade
The chain serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, with favorites including omelets, quiches, crepes, French pot roast and Chicken Cordon Bleu.
The brand’s history stretches back to 1978, when it was founded in Anaheim, California, near Disneyland by three partners operating as SWH Corporation.
Its first restaurant proved successful enough to prompt a second opening in Garden Grove in 1981, with the chain eventually expanding to 11 Southern California restaurants by 1989.
Mimi’s had around 80 locations when it was acquired by Bob Evans Farms in 2004. But its footprint has since collapsed, with dozens of restaurants disappearing over the past decade.
The latest closures come as casual dining chains across America grapple with a difficult combination of rising labor and food costs, higher rents and changing consumer habits.
Mimi’s most recent Colorado location, in Colorado Springs, also closed permanently in May after temporarily shutting in February following a health inspection that identified 25 violations.
The Folsom closure has prompted a mixture of nostalgia, criticism and sadness among locals discussing the restaurant on Reddit.
One commenter wrote: ‘TBH I was surprised it lasted this long,’ while another said they did not understand why people were still going there.
Others were far more sentimental.
‘So sad. We’ve been going there off and on for years,’ one person wrote, adding that the quality of service and menu had ‘gone all over the place’ but that they would miss the restaurant.’
