Mima’s: Back to two windows after 25 years

To most people in town, Mima’s has always been there on FM 2327, near KAPS and the site of the Lions’ Market Days. But, there was a time before Mima’s and if you wanted a taco, they were few and far between.

Then, about 25 years ago, Helen Sauceda’s recipes hit Wimberley. Tony Sauceda and his wife opened a taco stand. Tony was from San Marcos and Helen is from Wimberley. They met, and eloped. They had a happy 55-year marriage.

“Dad had a successful paint and drywall business in San Marcos and just got burnt out,” Mandy Sauceda Anderson, daughter and manager of Mima’s, said.

They were living in San Marcos, so they moved a trailer to the property they bought in Wimberley. Her parents decided to sell tacos using her mom’s recipes at a stand on the land that her parents owned. The trailer’s two windows for take out service were opened for customers.

(An aside here, part of her parent’s land was then sold to the Lions to join the two properties that the Lions had.)

The business prospered. Growing up in Wimberley, a WHS grad, going Kindergarten through 12th grade, Mandy was shy when her father would ask if she could sell tacos at school, wanting to fit in with the other girls in town. “We were one of the first Hispanic families in town.”

Instilling a good work ethic in his children, the kids were always kept busy with chores and of course helping with the business. “We never slept in, we always had chores. It was a strict work ethic. As we got older, we would do age appropriate chores… But we always ate very well. I thought everyone ate well,” she said.

The business did well. “In five years we were building customers. Kids would come here after school; they go to practice, after practice they come here. They’re hanging out here, the parents pick them up, and ‘well since I’m here, this can be for supper.’”

At first it was breakfast, then lunch, Monday through Saturday, but dad’s business sense found it hard to pass being open on Sunday, feeling he was missing customers and taco sales. Sunday was to be a two-week trial period. “Sunday is our busiest day,” she said.

Menu items were added and being open from 6:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. made things happen, being noted for not only breakfast tacos, winning the “Best of” many times, but also for Helen’s recipe for carne guisada, among other favorites. “Everything is from my mother’s authentic recipes.”

The business expanded over the years and soon there was inside dining, along with outside dining on the patio. Mima’s became busier and busier. Finding a parking space was no easy task. The place to meet and eat became a fixture. Mima’s tacos became a treat held over the heads of school kids in class, a reward for good behavior.

Then boom, it happened, Coronavirus. It shut down everything.

“At first, it was scary. After we went back, it was old school. We knew what to do. We serve through the windows,” she said. First it was just one window, but after a week of “deep cleaning, we even clean behind the stove,” and remodeling, the second window is taking orders just like old times. Due to the Coronavirus, both her sons have joined her behind the windows.

Twenty-five years, three generations of Mima’s tacos, and other Tex-Mex offerings is what they are noted for. Consistency and good food have been at its success, “and the attention and love in the items,” Mandy Anderson said.

Mima’s is open seven days a week 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and Sunday 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cash only but there is an ATM machine on the premises.