XL 2004 Dining Guide

No experience required for Garibaldi's Carmen Sims

She wanted to be a writer, chose to be a social worker and ended up owning a restaurant.

Photo by Ricardo B. Brazziell/AA-S Carmen Sims brings her family's expertise to dishes such as fried shrimp with jalapenos and cheese wrapped in bacon.

That's the unusual career path that Carmen Sims has followed, from her native Mexico to years abroad to residency in the United States.

Throughout those years, though, there was one constant: her passion for good food.

Her friends enjoyed her cooking so much they used to urge her to open a Mexican restaurant.

Instead, she worked two other jobs -- for the Texas Workers Compensation Commission and a local department store.

"I never worked in a restaurant before in my life," says the single mother with two daughters. "I didn't know how a commercial kitchen worked. The only thing I knew was how to cook good food."

Growing up in Mexico City, she learned to cook from her parents, who in turn had learned from their grandparents, with an emphasis on freshness and flavor.

It's an approach she carries over to her restaurant, Garibaldi's, which is named after the famed square in Mexico City and which she owns with a business partner, Israel Munez.

But it hasn't been the lack of experience in a commercial kitchen or the constant drive to produce fresh items that has been Sims' biggest challenge. It was the economy and the roads.

Garibaldi's opened in December 2000 and was just attracting a following when the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the economic decline afterward left Sims struggling to regain her financial footing.

Then road construction on Ben White and street repairs on Congress continued to deter many customers who don't want to deal with the traffic hassles in the area.

Still, that hasn't dampened her determination.

"I want everything well done," Sims says. "I like to feel proud of the things I do."
-- Dale Rice