Every weekday around noon, hungry high schoolers line up to order lunch near the intersection of Allen and Regent streets. Sitting right outside the shop — usually on the curb — they dig in to dishes like kimbap (seaweed rolls), tteokbokki (rice cakes) and mandu (dumplings). In this westside neighborhood, it’s become somewhat of a lunch-break ritual.
The scene takes place at Cafe MiMi, a Korean takeout counter serving high-quality and convenient Korean fare at an affordable cost. All orders are placed online or at a window kiosk outside the restaurant’s simple brick facade just around the corner from Madison West High School.
First-time restaurateur Youngeun Cho’s small storefront offers nine standard kimbap flavors, including bulgogi and spicy beef. Cho’s favorite is the crunchy veggie kimbap, a roll packed tightly with cucumber, rice, pickled radish and sauteed carrots and served with a side of spicy chile and fermented soybean ssamjang sauce.
“[These dishes] are easy to enjoy. … You can just grab [them] and go like a sandwich,” says Cho, who moved to Madison from South Korea with her family in 2018. (Cho’s 16-year-old son, Shawn, helped translate during our interview.)…