La Reunion
La Reunion Coffee Café is a coffee shop and restaurant located at 4085 Helena Road in Helena. The Helena location was opened in mid-2009 by Del and Robin Howell. It is the third incarnation of La Reunion, with the original location in Forest Park and a second in Liberty Park.
The Howells named their coffee shop after the French island of the same name in the Indian Ocean, where hundreds of years ago 100 coffee trees were transplanted from Africa. 2 trees survived and thus began the European coffee trade.
The current location hosts live music on a regular basis, and in 2010 hosted "La Reunion Idol", a weekly talent show in the vein of American Idol.
Forest Park
La Reunion Coffee and Tea Company was originally located at 3809 Clairmont Avenue in Forest Park.
In 2006 the Howells sold the café to Clif and Maureen Holt, the owners of the adjacent Little Savannah restaurant. It was initially operated as a coffee house, but was used as extra seating or for special events as required by the restaurant. The Holts hired a pastry chef to provide fresh-baked pastries for both operations. Later the restaurant absorbed the café entirely.
The Forest Park café was used as a Sunday meet-up spot by the Birmingham Scooter Syndicate.
References
- O'Hara, Jo Ellen (July 21, 2006) "Little Savannah gets bigger and adds La Reunion." Birmingham News
- Leigh (July 27, 2009) "La Reunion Coffee Shop." Tales from Bloggeritaville
- Brookhart, Laura (January 29, 2010) "Couple falls in love over coffee." Shelby County Reporter
- Horn, Jason (March 28, 2011) "Ten spots: To get a good cup of joe." B-Metro
External links
- La Reunion on Facebook