Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

New Mexican Restaurant Opens In Gurdon

Something different this way comes, and it's a welcome site.

Art and Mary's cafi, serving Mexican food, is now open and ready for business, located across from Ann's Corner.

The cafi is owned by Art and Mary Miranda. Art is a transplant to Arkansas, but Mary was born and raised in Gurdon. Both have family either in the area or close by.

The two have plenty of experience in the restaurant business. Art has been in the business 45 years, literally growing up in it and retiring from both Holiday Inn and Hilton, where he was executive chef.

Mary spent 15 years as food and beverage manager of the Ramada Inn in Chicago.

When they retired recently, their decision on where to go was between Gurdon and Arizona. As both have family in Arkansas, the choice was simple and easily made.

While the cafi will primarily serve Mexican food, there will be plenty of other dishes to choose from, and the Mexican entrees will be a bit different than most are used to.

Art said the Mexican food will be a blend of Colorado, Texas, California and New Mexico styles.

But, the menu, he said, is 60 percent Mexican food and 40 percent American, including four different kinds of hamburger. Though the burger prices may, at first, appear to be high, the patties contain a half-pound of ground beef.

Some of the other menu items include catfish, shrimp, and steak.

There will be lunch specials daily when the cafi is open, with the exception of Sunday. Miranda said Sundays will feature a brunch, complete with any type of omelet a person could want and true Belgian waffles.

But let's not forget about desserts. Miranda will be making a wide variety of cobblers, with cakes and pies also available.

Miranda's parents had a restaurant when he was a child, so, naturally, he grew up in the business. When he was in the service, the powers that be had him cooking for the men.

After his tour of duty he continued cooking, as this was all he knew how to do. But, cooking has taken Miranda all over Europe and the U.S. In fact, he studied cooking for four years in Europe before returning to America.

Art and Mary's will be a different sort of cafi. Instead of the owners deciding what will be on the menu, an item's popularity will be the deciding factor. This isn't to say there is no menu. As Miranda said, "it's not carved in stone. We'll serve what the people want."

Before deciding what type of food to serve, the Mirandas looked at the area and the kinds of restaurants already here. They realized Mexican, Oriental and Italian are popular ethnic restaurants and decided to go with Mexican as most people tend to enjoy it.

"Ours will be different," he said of the cafi. "We will use a blend of different flavors. Good flavors, not too spicy, unless the customer wants it."

Customers should understand one thing up front. Each dish will be made to order, with nothing prepared in advance. This means it will take a bit longer to get served, but the wait will be more than worth it.

One of the reasons is Miranda has been working with different vendors, looking for the best food available on the market. "We will serve quality food,' he said, "the best we can find."

In addition to offering a full cafi menu, Miranda has a recreational vehicle converted into a kitchen and will be available for catering jobs, such as weddings and parties.

Along with catering, Miranda also does ice sculpting, an art form he has been recognized for in other places he's worked.

"We want to work with the community," he said. "Maybe coaching a ball team or sponsoring one.

"We're excited to be here with the family here. We get to watch the grandchildren grow up."

Their family has been important in helping get the restaurant up and running, as they have helped find funding, along with working to help convert the former recreational center into a cafi.

Art and Mary's cafi will be open from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, being closed Mondays and Tuesdays. However, as Art said, even the hours aren't etched in stone and could change depending on the community's needs."We want people to be comfortable here," he said. "It's a family-style restaurant."

Since putting the sign up outside the building, the Mirandas have been getting call after call about their opening date. "We've had a lot of good response from the public," he said. "A lot of people have stopped in for lunch even though we weren't open."

The waiting, though, has ended, and Art and Mary's cafi is now open for business.