Sometimes you have to suffer for your art.

In this case, the suffering is operating on very little sleep after having worked the late shift and then deciding to get up early (7 a.m. is early for me) to attend the grand opening of the Fontana Mimi’s Cafe.

Was it worth it?

Having scored a $25 Mimi’s gift card for my efforts, yes.

The restaurant was scheduled to open at 9 a.m., and I arrived about an hour before that. There were very few cars in the parking lot, so I figured I had a good chance at getting one of the 75 gift cards they were giving out.


I secured a parking spot close to the restaurant and got out.

I surveyed the smallish crowd and wondered why nobody was waiting in line.

I walked over toward the entrance and saw that they had coffee and a pan of sweet bread (basically a flattened-out version of their buttermilk spice muffin) for those who braved the cold. I grabbed a piece of the bread and poured a cup of coffee.

KOLA radio had a booth set up with music and a wheel to spin for prizes.

I soon found out why nobody was lined up. Everyone had already gotten a number from one of the two marketing folks (Jennifer and Noah?) that were there handing them out. I got my number: 56.

Chatting with some of the other folks who were waiting, I found out that they tiered the gift card giveaway. The first ten people got $100 gift cards, the next 15 received $50 cards and the rest, $25.

I also heard that some crazy people die-hard Mimi’s fans got there at 3 a.m. Now that’s dedication!

The whole time I was waiting, people kept going into the restaurant and coming out with bags of food in styrofoam containers. So much for your grand opening. (I did hear that they had already done a soft-opening weeks earlier.)

They were still handing out numbers until about a quarter to 9. The KOLA guy announced that Mimi’s would be giving out free appetizer cards to the few who showed up after the numbers were exhausted…how nice of them!

So, we kept waiting until the KOLA guy told us to line up so we could get our gift cards.

Shortly after 9 a.m., we listened to several speakers, including Tim Pulido, Mimi’s Cafe president and the Fontana Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Then…the moment we’d all been waiting for…free gift cards!

I only saw a few who had been waiting actually go into the restaurant to use their cards.

I only had one thing on my mind…more sleep! So, home I went.

My first meal at Mimi’s Fontana would have to wait for another day.