After 33 years as the culinary crossroads of early bird diners and late night bar crawlers, Adel’s Restaurant on College Ave. in Santa Rosa has closed.
Windows are papered over and the sign has been removed at the 24-hour café that owner Mike Atallah purchased in 1986 at the triangular junction of College, Mendocino and B streets, but it’s not the end of the road for the historic cafe.
This summer, Atallah plans to reopen the renovated Santa Rosa Adel’s space as a hipper, more modern brunch-style restaurant called Cafe Mimosa. Offering seven kinds of mimosas (of course), waffles, Benedicts, biscuits and gravy as well as burgers, sandwiches and lunch fare, he says it was time for a change.
“When the sign came down I had tears in my eyes,” said Atallah. “In 1986, Adel’s was perfect but now it’s different. The place had been there so long, and it got a little tired,” he said. Atallah had owned a second Adel’s in Healdsburg, but has since sold it to another operator.
Atallah hopes that the revamped concept will bring in a younger crowd for $15 bottomless mimosas on Saturday and Sunday and daily raspberry, pineapple, grapefruit, mango and blackberry $6 mimosas. The Mendocino and College Ave. restaurant’s new 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. hours will leave the Tipsy Triangle bar crowd with limited downtown dining options after 10 p.m., but on the plus side, bottomless mimosas and French toast. mmmmm.
“We start at 5 a.m. making fresh food,” said Atallah, who is focusing on organic and fresh ingredients instead of frozen and canned ones.
Though there are some lighter dishes, there will still be plenty of gut-busters on the Mimosa menu including a thick brick of sandwich with breaded chicken, chipotle aioli and pickles, the Veggie Benedict — champagne Hollandaise slathered on a pile of veggies and perfectly-poached eggs — as well as tri-tip and club sandwiches, a Reuben, chilaquiles, steak and eggs, grilled pork chops and salads.
It’s not the first Cafe Mimosa for Atallah, however. He and his son Yazen opened their first Cafe Mimosa in Rohnert Park in May. It’s already become a popular spot on the west side of town.
“You just have to keep using your brain in business,” he said of the change, “and I’m not getting any younger.”
You can check out Cafe Mimosa in Rohnert Park at 451 Rohnert Park Expressway, 707-595-3764.