Eat Athens: Local café adds 'dorm room gourmet' menu items created by award-winning chef

As one of the best places in town to meet up for coffee, watch stand-up comedy or vibe to a DJ, it doesn't seem possible that Buvez could get any cooler. With the addition of a new staff member and subsequent rollout of some one-of-a-kind additions to the menu, we're about to find out just how cool things can get.

Beginning Tuesday, Buvez will premiere new additions to its food and drink menu courtesy of award-winning Athens chef Mimi Maumus, who has slowly been introducing her creations to regular guests for the past few weeks in her new role as general manager at the café.

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Maumus and Buvez owner Bain Mattox met in the early 2000s as co-workers at famed Athens restaurant Five and Ten, where they developed an energetically collaborative friendship. When Maumus' restaurant home.made closed earlier this year, Mattox had been looking to fill a leadership position at Buvez, and the timing proved to be serendipitous for both.

"Buvez has been open for almost six years and it's been doing fine," Mattox told the Banner-Herald. "What we needed was a creative person to give it that push forward, and that's when Mimi came along."

Maumus assured the Banner-Herald that she's not taking away the existing menu options at Buvez; she's just adding some enhancements. Those additions are what Maumus calls "dorm room gourmet," since the café has a utilitarian cooking setup that is different from a full restaurant kitchen. Some of the items that will debut on Tuesday include pizza bagels, a tuna melt, honeycomb, cold drinks called "fizzies" and more.

When the Banner-Herald visited Buvez, Maumus let us try a new beverage called "The Riveter" that is a twist on her daughter's favorite pink-colored drink from a certain coffee mega-chain. Made from coconut milk, berrylicious sno-cone syrup and topped with freeze-dried strawberries, "The Riveter" is a sensory nostalgia trip that brings back memories of drinking the cereal milk out of the bottom of a bowl of Fruity Pebbles.

"Buvez is a fun space, and the staff is full of creative people," said Maumus. "When home.made folded, there were a lot of things I could've done. I had just fallen back in love with cooking when Bain brought me on here, and I'm excited to be putting all of our ideas together."

Buvez is open Tuesday through Sunday at 585 Barber St., Suite A. To keep up with food, drinks and events at the café, find their Instagram account at instagram.com/buvez_athens.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Eat Athens: Buvez now offers Mimi Maumus' creations