Mimo

While you can find pretty much anything in Houston—river otters in the bayou, giant president head statues under the freeway, a beloved furniture store owner nicknamed for a mattress—it’s conspicuously difficult to find a basic (but excellent) sandwich. Not to say the sandwiches (or paninos as listed on the menu) at Mimo are basic. But they aren’t flashy, ultra-mega-huge, or covered in gold, which makes them pretty special around these parts. The casual Italian cafe in the East End—currently only open for lunch according to the restaurant’s Instagram—serves sandwiches on soft, rustic bread: thick-sliced porchetta with greens, seared eggplant and crisp broccolini, or slow-roasted Sicilian beef with savory jus. OK, so, maybe not at all basic. But holy crap does it feel nice to walk into Mimo’s moody blue dining room, eat a meal that appears ripped from pastoral still life painting, and knock back a few aperol spritzes during lunch like you have all the time in the world. Plus, if you gaze through pink window curtains just long enough, you might even begin to see a picturesque landscape sloping toward the Mediterranean Sea rather than a searing hot parking lot blacktop.

photo credit: Chelsea Thomas