"I think in the '20s or the '30s, they started opening the first Italian restaurants in Havana, especially in a very iconic place in Havana called Paseo del Prado."
Luis Gonzalez said that last spring, while he and his wife, Lisanne Garcia, were still remodeling the old Mark's Feed Store building at 1514 Bardstown Road. The restaurant they opened there, Prado 264, served its first guests on July 15. A few doors up at 1534 Bardstown Road, Yodit "Mimi" Woldetsadik and Yared Hailemariam opened Mimi's Ethiopian Restaurant on Wednesday, August 5.
Each place is built on a tradition its owners brought with them. One is a recipe lineage tied to a single Havana address. The other is a coffee ritual that only works if you stay a while. As of this weekend, both are open for a midday meal on Saturdays and Sundays. Prado 264's weekend lunch starts today, October 2. Mimi's already opens at 11 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
A note on geography before going further. Food & Dining Magazine places this stretch in Deer Park and calls it the Highlands "only colloquially." Most people on either side of that line just call it Bardstown Road.
A Name That Came From Paseo del Prado
The name Prado 264 is older than the Louisville restaurant. According to the restaurant's own history, it belonged to a well-known restaurant on Havana's Paseo del Prado. Gonzalez's family history holds that his father was later involved in redeveloping the original property. During that work, materials from the restaurant's past turned up, including recipes the family believes came from the original Prado 264.
Gonzalez and Garcia are both Cuban natives. They lived in Miami for years and first pictured the restaurant in Florida before a connection to Louisville brought it to Bardstown Road. The restaurant describes itself as a contemporary concept built on that heritage, not a recreation of the Havana original. The pre-opening reporting said Miami chef Michael Garcia was relocating to run the kitchen. The general manager, Omar Diaz, brings 26 years in hospitality, including a decade leading Havana 1957 in South Florida.
The menu follows Gonzalez's history lesson closely, with Cuban dishes run through Italian pasta and Italian dishes seasoned the Cuban way. On the posted menu, Ropa Vieja Ravioli is $27.99 and Picadillo Bolognese is $24.99. Starters include Havana Street Croquettes & Arancini at $15.99, Artichoke & Queso Fundido at $16.99 and Fritto Misto at $18.99. The fall cocktail list adds Autumn Whisper and Spicy Pumpkin Noir.
The new lunch menu previews Branzino, Chicken Pesto Crème, Capellini alla Sorrentina and Palomilla Parmigiana. Lunch runs Friday through Sunday. The restaurant's two announcements give different end times: an earlier post says 2 p.m., and the "starts tomorrow" post says 4:30 p.m. Plan to arrive by early afternoon until the schedule settles.
Next Door, a Ceremony Built on Staying
Mimi's starts from a different kind of inheritance. The restaurant offers buna, the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Green coffee beans are roasted in the dining room, ground fresh and brewed in a traditional jebena, then served with incense and traditional accompaniments. The restaurant's own description calls it "a time to slow down, be present." Mimi's does not post a set ceremony schedule, so ask when you book.
Woldetsadik has said opening a restaurant was a lifelong dream. Food & Dining Magazine reported before the opening that the menu would be made from scratch, with doro wat and kitfo at the center. Doro wat is the slow-cooked chicken and egg stew built on caramelized onions and berbere spice, widely called Ethiopia's national dish. Kitfo is a spiced minced raw beef tartare.
On Mimi's menu, Doro Wat is $21, Beef Wat $22 and Lamb Wat $23. The vegetarian Shiro Wat is $16, and Golden Sambusas are $9. Sampler plates start at $22 for one person and go up to a $140 feast for six. The weekday happy hour runs Monday through Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. It includes a buy-one-get-one dessert offer with Mimi's Garden Sampler and discounts on draft beer and wine.
Compare the prices. A one-person sampler at Mimi's and the Ropa Vieja Ravioli at Prado differ by about six dollars. The bigger difference is how each menu is meant to be shared. The six-person feast at Mimi's comes to about $23 a head, less than a single pasta entrée next door.
The Weekend Clock, Side by Side
Both places take reservations through OpenTable, and Prado calls them "highly recommended." Here is how the hours line up as currently posted.
| Prado 264, 1514 Bardstown Rd. | Mimi's Ethiopian, 1534 Bardstown Rd. | |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Closed | 4 to 9 p.m. |
| Tuesday to Thursday | Dinner from 5 p.m. | 4 to 9 p.m. |
| Friday | Lunch from 11 a.m., dinner 5 to 10 p.m. | 4 to 10 p.m. |
| Saturday | Lunch from 11 a.m., dinner 5 to 10 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. |
| Sunday | Lunch from 11 a.m., dinner 5 to 9:30 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
| Weekday extra | Fall cocktails | Happy hour, 5 to 7 p.m. |
Prado's dinner hours come from its OpenTable listing, which shows 5 to 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday and 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. Mimi's hours come from an August 13 report. The restaurant's own site doesn't list them, so confirm before you go.
The table shows the change. Until today, a Saturday at noon on this block meant one open dining room. Now there are two, a few doors apart.
How These Two Buildings Got Here
Both addresses have a long history, which is part of why the new tenants feel noticeable.
1514 Bardstown Road was Another Place Sandwich Shoppe through 1993, then briefly Nick's Dixie Pig. Mark's Feed Store Bar-B-Q & Catering ran there after that, until its final day on August 24, 2025. Prado took about eleven months to go from that closing to its first guests. The owners first aimed for a May opening of the first-floor dining room, with an upstairs event space to follow. Its Instagram bio still says "Bar Coming Soon," so the build-out isn't finished.
1534 Bardstown Road is the old Ear X-tacy building. The record store closed in 2011, and Panera Bread followed until it closed in June 2020. Tacos D'Amor & More came next. In February 2026, the Courier Journal reported that customers found signs saying it had closed permanently. Mimi's opened about five months after that report.
Recent tenants at both addresses served food people ordered, ate and left with. Prado opened as a reservation-first dining room with cocktails and a planned event floor. Mimi's opened around a ceremony that asks guests to linger. Both owners chose to bring a sit-down format, built around a specific tradition, to buildings most Bardstown Road regulars knew for something else.
Using Both on One Weekend
Booking data on October 2 showed both restaurants active. Prado had a 4.4-star average from 98 OpenTable reviews, and Mimi's had 4.7 stars from 18. Those are diner ratings, not critics' reviews. No local critic has published a full review of either place yet. Here is one way to try both without rushing either.
- Saturday, 11 a.m. at Mimi's. Order sambusas and a shared sampler, and ask whether the buna ceremony is available that day.
- Sunday, around noon at Prado 264. Try the first weekend of the lunch menu: Palomilla Parmigiana or Capellini alla Sorrentina, plus a mojito.
- A weeknight after work, 5 to 7 p.m. Mimi's happy hour falls on nights when Prado's dining room is just opening, so Shiro Wat and a draft beer can come before or after a Prado reservation without overlapping.
Prado lists parking as a public lot on OpenTable. Mimi's doesn't publish parking details, so ask when you book.
If you take visiting family to one of these tables this fall and they start asking what life is like a few blocks off Bardstown Road, Laura Rice & Associates is glad to walk those streets with them. Let's Connect.
