The Coffee Dude
About Me
Started by Richard it has fast become a coffee hub featuring yoga classes, open mic nights, Haitian food pop-ups as well as artists regularly exhibiting on the walls upstairs and in the basement. Richard, who hails from the capital Port-au-Prince, said the idea was born at the Port aux Princes Airport in 2014 – five years after the devastating earthquake that flattened the country’s infrastructure and killed hundreds of thousands. The cafe’s name is an amalgam of Haitian homages, one to its history and the other to it’s vernacular, Richard says the 1788 is inspired by the year when Haiti was considered the “Pearl of the West Indies” adding “As a colony Haiti was most profitable and productive than any other colony. During that time 60% of the world consumption of Coffee was from Haiti..” History also tells us it is the eve of the French revolution that would eventually lead to Haiti’s independence some years later. And the Kafe in the name simply comes from the the Creole word for…coffee.
Kafe 1788 also works as a social enterprise in a way , the coffee it serves is bought from independent producers in Haiti as green beans and freshly roasted in the UK a week before customers take a sip. Richard says it is a way to give back to the country he was born in “I have been thinking that Haiti will need something more so the country could go back to his glory.