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Three years ago, one of the first things Larissa and her husband did after moving from Brazil to Adelaide was complete a barista course.
The couple were learning English, trying to establish a new life and searching for a way into the workforce when they noticed just how deeply coffee was woven into Adelaide’s culture.
Now, after years of learning and volunteering, the couple have launched Casa Cafe at 201 Franklin Street, Adelaide.
For Larissa, Casa Cafe is about more than coffee.
“Our phrase, ‘From Brazil to Australia,’ represents exactly what Casa Cafe means to us: bringing a little piece of where we come from into the city we now call home,” she told Glam Adelaide.
The menu blends familiar Adelaide cafe favourites with traditional Brazilian flavours, including café coado, a Brazilian-style drip coffee made by slowly pouring hot water through ground coffee and a filter.
While espresso will still be on the menu, café coado is particularly meaningful to Larissa. In Brazil, it is an everyday way of making coffee, and she describes it as fresh, simple and distinctly different from the espresso-based coffee culture found in Australian cafes.
“In Brazil, we don’t have that kind of machine that you have here to prepare the milk and everything, so the common one is drip coffee,” she said.
Then there is the pão de queijo, or Brazilian cheese bread, made from a recipe that has been passed down through Larissa’s family.
“Whenever someone visits someone in our state, they have drip coffee and cheese bread ready to welcome them,” she said.
Larissa’s home state, Minas Gerais, is renowned in Brazil for its food. Larissa grew up with a strong connection to cooking and the recipes that have travelled through her family.
Those flavours will appear throughout the menu, from homemade chicken pie to toasties with Brazilian-inspired meat and chicken fillings.
There are also Brazilian-style cakes, including carrot, orange and lemon. The carrot cake comes topped with chocolate sauce, and Larissa says the cakes are softer, fluffier and moister than many of the versions commonly found in Australia.
Casa Cafe will initially open three days a week, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, as the couple start small and settle into their first Australian business, while the eventual goal is to open seven days a week.
For now, though, Larissa is simply excited to have finally opened the doors.
Casa Cafe
When: Friday to Sunday from 7.30am to 3pm.
Where: 201 Franklin Street, Adelaide
To find out more, click here.
