Cabana Café

Rodrigo Prado left his home in the south of São Paulo de City, Brazil for Dublin in September 2011. Four months later Caroline Lazarin from the east of São Paulo arrived in Ireland. They hadn’t known each other in their home city but when Caroline went to stay with her cousin in Dublin, Rod happened to be sharing the same house. They started dating a few months later and instead of Caroline returning home as planned, Rod and Caroline eloped, with only two friends as witnesses, and married in Dublin in August 2015.

When Rod first arrived in Dublin he started work in Bewleys, Grafton Street where he trained as a barista. After three years in Bewleys, he then spent a further four years honing his skills in Leopold Coffee House and Coffeeangel in Dublin. Rod eventually realised his dream of running his own coffee shop when Cabana Café opened its doors in Balbriggan on 2 January 2019.

Caroline is also involved in the business and her interior design skills are apparent as soon as you walk through the door of Café Cabana. The style is traditional and rustic and it is a perfect space to escape from the bustle of the daily commute outside the nearby railway station.

Rod and Caroline are both very environmentally aware and socially conscious. Their cups and napkins are compostable, as are their food containers which are made from palm leaves.

Instead of a conventional loyalty card scheme, they operate the Stampify system, which is a social initiative that allows users to donate meals to help fight world hunger, by completing a Stampify loyalty card with stamps from partner businesses. Essentially, it’s a loyalty card for charity. Caroline and Rod support the local community by donating to and getting involved in local charitable and worthy causes.

They are also health conscious and cater for a wide range of dietary requirements, offering plenty of sweet and savoury vegan options, and alternative milk choices at no extra cost.