home.made restaurant has permanently closed after more than a decade on Baxter Street
Athens chef and restaurateur Mimi Maumus on Sunday told the Banner-Herald that her restaurant, home.made, has permanently closed. The final day of business at the longtime Baxter Street eatery was Feb. 16.
Maumus cited numerous reasons for the closure of her business, which was unable to make a financial recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maumus on Wednesday made posts to home.made's Facebook and Instagram accounts that showed a photo of the ongoing Athens-Clarke County sewer construction project in front of her restaurant, accompanied by a caption noting that sales had been affected in an "unexpected and dramatic" way.
ACC's public information office told the Banner-Herald that delays in the Baxter Street sewer project have caused it to go past its expected January completion date. Assistant Public Utilities Director Hugh Ogle told the Banner-Herald that the infrastructure upgrade ran into additional rock and cables, and there is currently no completion date as the project moves down Baxter in front of the Kroger fuel station.
"I've received so many kind messages from folks suggesting ways that I could keep home.made open, but I've spent the last four years trying everything that I could think of," Maumus told the Banner-Herald. "The road construction did not take a healthy business and put it out of business. It just took the wind out of the sails of our last hurrah."
Maumus began working in restaurants as a teen and started home.made in 2006 out of her home kitchen, where one of her first big catering jobs was for ACC District 2 Commissioner Melissa Link's wedding. home.made opened its 1072 Baxter St. location in 2011, and expanded to employ more than 20 people in the years prior to the pandemic in 2020.
Some of Maumus' business pivots in recent years included opening SideCar, a cocktail bar adjacent to home.made's main dining area, converting to lunch service only, and weekly Bar Sober pop-up events that featured a menu of alcohol-free cocktails. Maumus said that former staff volunteered to pitch in to help on a recent catering job, and she was brought to tears by their kindness.
"I've been thinking a lot lately about my fortune, and I have so much to be grateful for," said Maumus. "I feel like the universe is saying, 'Girl, enough already.' Because in that, there's no anger and there's no blame. I'm a survivalist and a fighter, but this isn't an angry fight. I know how to survive."
Photo gallery: Athens restaurants that closed in 2023
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: home.made restaurant has permanently closed
