Why Alma matters.
Alma is a family-owned Argentine-Irish café where Portobello's independent neighborhood culture meets the Parisi family's migration from Argentina, their distinctive interpretation of traditional South American flavors and Dublin's flourishing contemporary brunch scene.
Set along Curzon Street near its junction with South Circular Road, the café occupies a compact commercial premises among the red-brick residential terraces and independent businesses that distinguish Dublin's southern inner-city neighborhoods. Its understated street frontage establishes an intimate relationship with the surrounding residential streets, bringing the character of a family-operated neighborhood establishment into a predominantly domestic architectural setting. Inside, contemporary furnishings, closely arranged tables and warm decorative details create an informal dining room whose modest proportions encourage conversation across the café. Natural light enters through the street-facing windows, illuminating the seating areas and the carefully presented breakfast dishes that have become central to the establishment's reputation. The result is a café whose intimate residential setting, relaxed contemporary interiors and distinctive family hospitality give Argentine-Irish cooking a recognizable place within Portobello's independent dining culture.
What defines Alma.
Alma is best known for the Parisi family's transformation of their migration from Argentina into a Dublin café that combines South American culinary traditions with Irish agricultural ingredients and the collaborative work of three generations. Alejandro and Lucrecia Parisi established the business with their four daughters, Anabella, Luciana, Macarena and Agustina, following a gradual family relocation from Argentina to Ireland. The family had previously lived for an extended period in Bariloche, the Patagonian city associated with Argentina's southern lake district and its distinctive combination of European immigrant traditions and South American hospitality. Their interest in Ireland began when one of the daughters spent a sabbatical year in the country after completing school, developing an attachment to Dublin that encouraged her sisters to consider similar opportunities. The four daughters subsequently moved to Ireland in succession, building professional and personal connections before their parents followed. Three of the sisters gained experience working in Dublin cafés, developing practical knowledge of the city's hospitality sector and recognizing an opportunity to introduce familiar Argentine flavors into its expanding breakfast culture. The family established Alma on South Circular Road on January 16, 2019, creating an independent café whose name carries two interconnected meanings. Alma means soul in Spanish, and its four letters correspond to the initials of Anabella, Luciana, Macarena and Agustina, placing the daughters at the center of the business's name and family history. Alejandro and Lucrecia assumed ownership, with the sisters contributing across management, front-of-house service and communications, establishing a collaborative operating structure grounded in their different professional strengths. Brazilian chef Thiago Marques joined the opening kitchen after working at Fia and The Fumbally, bringing experience from two Dublin establishments associated with seasonal cooking and independent food production. His contribution helped develop an opening menu that connected Argentine preparations such as choripán and grilled morcilla with Irish meats, locally produced bread and seasonal vegetables. The café quickly developed a reputation for its dulce de leche pancakes, whose combination of Argentine confectionery and contemporary brunch presentation became a defining preparation. The family's approach attracted attention within Dublin's independent restaurant community during the establishment's first year, establishing Alma as a distinctive addition to the city's increasingly diverse breakfast culture. The COVID-19 pandemic subsequently placed substantial pressure on the young business, requiring the family to adapt its operations during a period of changing public-health restrictions and uncertainty across the hospitality industry. By 2021, Anabella Parisi had become an important public representative of the café, discussing the family's migration, its relationships with Irish suppliers and the development of its Argentine-Irish menu. Chef Dani subsequently contributed to the kitchen's seasonal development, extending the establishment's culinary repertoire through preparations adapted to changing agricultural availability. The café later relocated to Curzon Street, preserving its connection to Portobello and continuing the family's commitment to locally sourced ingredients and Argentine culinary influences.
Alma's culinary direction develops traditional Argentine flavors through the ingredients and breakfast customs of contemporary Ireland, creating a distinctive relationship between South American preparations and Dublin's independent food producers. Dulce de leche occupies a central position in this approach, bringing the caramelized richness of Argentina's celebrated milk confection into the café's sweet breakfast preparations. The signature pancakes combine a soft, freshly cooked foundation with whipped mascarpone, seasonal fruit and dulce de leche, balancing the confection's concentrated sweetness through dairy richness and fresh acidity. Earlier versions incorporated brandy-and-orange mascarpone, toasted almonds and aromatic herbs, demonstrating the kitchen's interest in developing familiar Argentine flavors through carefully selected complementary ingredients. Savory cooking follows a related direction through chimichurri, the herb-based Argentine condiment whose combination of parsley, garlic, vinegar and oil contributes brightness to richly flavored meats. The café's choripán adapts Argentina's traditional grilled sausage sandwich into a substantial brunch preparation, combining Argentine-style sausage with chimichurri, salsa criolla, caramelized onions and eggs on Irish sourdough bread. Salsa criolla introduces another recognizable South American element through finely prepared vegetables and sharp dressing, providing a fresh counterpoint to the sausage's richness. Irish beef receives comparable attention through preparations that combine slow cooking or concentrated meat sauces with pickled vegetables, eggs and complementary aromatic ingredients. The kitchen's vegetable-led dishes develop a broader international influence, incorporating ingredients such as harissa, whipped feta, roasted sweet potatoes and fermented accompaniments into the breakfast repertoire. Seasonal produce determines the changing composition of these preparations, preserving the family's original commitment to adapting Argentine cooking to Ireland's agricultural landscape. Tartine Organic Bakery supplies sourdough and ciabatta, connecting the café's breakfast preparations with Dublin's independent artisan baking culture. Specialty coffee comes from Two Fifty Square, the Dublin roastery whose carefully selected beans contribute a contemporary dimension to the traditional café service. Loose-leaf teas from Wall & Keogh extend the beverage selection through an established Irish specialist, accompanied by matcha and spiced preparations from independent suppliers. The café's culinary character emerges through this sustained relationship between Argentine family traditions, Irish agricultural products and the informal hospitality of a neighborhood breakfast establishment.
How Alma fits.
Alma works as the concluding destination for an outing connecting Portobello's canal-based commercial origins, the immigrant communities that shaped its residential streets and the transformation of an ancient religious site into a distinctive neighborhood garden.
Begin at Portobello Harbour, the former passenger terminus whose development accompanied the expansion of Dublin's Grand Canal during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The canal's circular route toward Ringsend was completed in 1796, connecting the inland navigation network with Dublin's eastern docks and establishing the infrastructure for a substantial passenger and freight operation. Portobello Harbour entered service in 1801, and the Grand Canal Company subsequently commissioned a substantial passenger hotel designed by architect Thomas Colbourne, completed in 1807. The hotel accommodated travelers arriving by canal boat, giving the surrounding district an important commercial function before railway transport displaced the canal's passenger services during the nineteenth century. The former hotel subsequently became a charitable institution and nursing home, preserving a physical connection to the transport infrastructure that helped establish Portobello as a residential suburb. Continue to Irish Jewish Museum, housed within two nineteenth-century terraced houses that became the Walworth Road Synagogue during the development of Dublin's Jewish community. Jewish families arriving from Eastern Europe during the late nineteenth century settled extensively around the South Circular Road, establishing businesses, schools and religious institutions that gave the surrounding district its historical association with Little Jerusalem. The Walworth Road congregation formed in 1912, adapting the adjoining houses into a synagogue whose upper-floor prayer room accommodated 150 worshippers. Suburban migration contributed to the congregation's decline, and the building ceased functioning as a synagogue during the early 1970s. Irish-born Israeli president Chaim Herzog inaugurated the museum on June 20, 1985, establishing a permanent institution dedicated to preserving the religious, commercial and social history of Jewish communities throughout Ireland. Its collections include ceremonial objects, family photographs, historical textiles and a reconstructed domestic Sabbath setting, connecting the neighborhood's immigrant heritage to the wider development of Irish society. Conclude at St. Kevin's Park, a walled garden occupying the former churchyard of one of Dublin's oldest religious sites. Christian worship developed here before the Anglo-Norman conquest, and the church became associated with the medieval Manor of St. Sepulchre under the authority of Dublin's archbishops. Archbishop Dermot O'Hurley was buried in the churchyard following his execution in 1584, giving the site a lasting association with the religious persecution of the Elizabethan period. The surviving church ruins date principally from the eighteenth century, preserving the architectural remains of a parish whose congregation continued worshipping there until 1912. Dublin Corporation acquired the property in 1962 and transformed the former burial ground into a public garden, arranging historic gravestones along its enclosing walls before the park opened in 1971. The progression moves from the commercial infrastructure of Dublin's canal network through the religious and social institutions established by Portobello's Jewish community and culminates in the preservation of an ancient churchyard as a public garden, connecting three successive developments in the neighborhood's urban and cultural history.
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