Café Sabor Cruceño is changing lives, one meal at a time.
The open-air rooftop restaurant perches like a treehouse on a steep mountainside overlooking volcano-ringed Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. It’s part of a vocational program supported by the nonprofit Amigos de Santa Cruz, whose mission is to improve the lives of indigenous people in Santa Cruz la Laguna and the surrounding villages.
Its remote location is best reached by water taxi from Panajachel, one of the largest towns on the lake. Tuk-tuk drivers congregate at the dock to take visitors up the steep switchback road to the vocational center that houses the café and an artisan shop.
Café Sabor Cruceño specializes in Guatemalan fare that highlights fresh, local ingredients. Pepián is one of the most famous dishes, made with a blend of seeds, cacao, chicken and spices served with rice or tortillas. Salads are almost too beautiful to eat, arriving artfully garnished with bright flowers. There’s an assortment of traditional beverages such as horchata (a rice-based drink spiced with cinnamon) and unique offerings like La Nancy, a blend of hibiscus tea with lime juice and soda. Fried plantains with mole chocolate sauce or homemade ice cream top the dessert menu.
There are cooking, weaving and beading classes for visitors who want to learn more about Mayan culture and cuisine.
When Amigos was founded in 1998, most children in the region were dropping out of school by the third grade. Today, through education and youth programs, more than 100 Santa Cruz youth have completed high school, and some have earned university degrees. Most of the graduates of the culinary program at Café Sabor Cruceño start careers at local restaurants and hotels surrounding Lake Atitlán.
We linger on the rooftop watching the water taxis crisscross the lake, then zigzag down the mountain on foot.
It was a good meal, that also does good work.