Memory
Recipes and techniques carry the flavors of home forward without turning heritage into nostalgia.
Before the restaurant
It Began at Home. Then Crossed an Ocean.
1990s
The Atlanta
chapter
chapter
Whilemina Bestman’s story begins in Liberia, where she learned food culture in her parents’ home and built practical experience by running a popular restaurant before leaving the country.
During a period of civil crisis in Liberia, she carried those skills across the Atlantic and began again in the United States. Discipline, courage, and a strong sense of responsibility became the foundation for what came next.
In the early 1990s, Mina took her shot at Atlanta’s restaurant world with Mina’s Place. She first served the Liberian community, then welcomed growing demand from West African and Caribbean guests across the city.
That wider table eventually moved from Peachtree Industrial Boulevard to Memorial Drive. The address changed; the purpose stayed clear: cook with care, feed people generously, and create cultural connection through food.
The journey changed the address. The table kept its purpose.
A culinary inheritance carried across water, then grounded in a Georgia community.
