By Anne Ruisi
Olexa’s Catering Cafe & Cakes in Mountain Brook will be featured online by America’s Best Restaurants.
America’s Best Restaurants, a national media and marketing company focusing on local, independently owned restaurants, brought its ABR Roadshow for filming to Olexa’s on Oct. 4.
“We’re so excited, it’s so fabulous,” said Olexa’s owner Diane Olexa.
Popular dishes that customers know and love, such as crepes, quiche and cake, will be highlighted, Olexa said. There also will be an extensive on-camera interview with Olexa about the restaurant’s special place in the community.
The episode will be aired extensively on the website, americasbestrestaurants.com, and social media channels later, with the date to be announced.
Olexa got her start in the food business nearly two decades ago, doing bridal catering with her mother. The cafe opened after wedding guests would ask if she had a restaurant. Once the cafe opened, servers would warm cake slices for brides-to-be to try so they wouldn’t have to eat cold cake that had been stored.
“The waitresses were leaving it in (the microwave) too long and it was being served warm,” Olexa said in a press release from America’s Best Restaurants. “So then it went around town that I was serving warm buttercream cake, before I even knew it, and then it became all the rage. They were coming for the cake and staying for lunch.”
Olexa’s cakes have been featured in numerous bridal magazines, and the cafe has won several awards for best luncheon.
America’s Best Restaurants is based in Florence, Kentucky, and travels the country telling the stories and highlighting the unique food of locally owned independent restaurants as part of the America’s Best Restaurants Roadshow. Over 700 episodes have been filmed.
