Sabine Langer is the first to tell you she’s not a cook. So how is it that her biggest impact on her local community comes through feeding thousands of people high quality international cuisine?
In this article, you’ll read about Sabine’s story and the founding of Global Café, a restaurant that serves authentic international cuisine by providing work to immigrants and refugees, bridging the gap between cultures, breaking down barriers, and creating community.
Sabine is a Swiss immigrant with a dual Swiss/US citizenship, a ready smile, and a passion for people. Her story offers wisdom and inspiration for anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit and a hope to make the world a better place.
How It All Began
Sabine moved to the United States when she was 21 years old, in search of some sunlight. “Switzerland is a beautiful country, but between October and March, you don’t see much sun. And I’m one of those people that I don’t do well without the sun.” Sabine originally moved to California before making her way to Texas and eventually Memphis, Tennessee where she has resided for about thirteen years. While Sabine always knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur, the idea for Global Café, in her words, “actually kind of fell in my lap.”
“It was the political situation in 2017 that was not very favorable for immigrants and refugees, and I just wanted to help and make a difference. And I just didn’t know how. And I ended up doing a lot of volunteering and interviewing people in communities that have a lot of immigrants and refugees and myself being an immigrant, of course. I would find those women, and they happened to all be women that would cook on the side. They’d have a full time job, one or 2 or 3 full time jobs, and then cook on the side a little bit, trying to make extra money to serve their neighbors, their communities. That’s when I thought, ‘Hm, maybe there’s a path.’”
Sabine recalls a particular conversation in which a woman expressed that her desire to open a restaurant felt too out of reach. In Sabine’s experience, many highly educated immigrants’ educational backgrounds don’t translate into the American system, or they don’t personally have a business background. “So that’s when I came in and was able to kind of bridge that gap. They were doing the cooking, I was doing the business side.”
Why Memphis?
Though Sabine originally moved to Memphis for her ex-husband’s work, she is quick to point out that if she had wanted to live elsewhere by now, she could have. Instead, she found a home in Memphis that was uniquely suited for the founding of Global Café, thanks to the city’s balance of beauty and grit, and the hustle and focus of the people.
“Memphis, I feel, is the only place I’ve been where the ethos is, so that one little person like me can make a difference. And I’ve never really felt empowered or just had the capabilities of working the system or understanding the system to make a difference… I’m not sure if Global Café would exist if I had been in a different city.”
Global Café and Sabine’s other restaurant, Farm Burger Memphis, are both located in Crosstown Concourse.
Global Café
Originating in 2018, Global Café is a social enterprise which offers permanent employment to immigrants and refugees. Unlike incubators which help immigrants and refugees find limited time employment, Global Café employees can stay as long as they are willing and able. Sabine says, “Really economically making a difference in those people’s lives is really the goal of the company. You know, people being able to flourish and not just make a living wage, but truly making a difference in their lives and hopefully in their family and their larger community’s lives – that was the goal from day one.”
With the support and encouragement of her life partner, Sabine decided to pursue her idea full steam ahead. “Looking back, I don’t know if it’s beginner’s luck, if it’s just naivete, or what it is. But I just went for it and never looked back. Never thought for half a second that I might not succeed.” Sabine attributes her success to stubbornness, her “advanced degree in Googling,” and largely to her business partner, Juan, who brought with him the restaurant experience Sabine needed.
The Right Partner
Sabine recalls getting to know Juan when, as a prolific long distance runner, she was training for the Boston Marathon.
“I needed to get a 20 mile run in. And the only person that could hang with me and chitchat with me on that 20 miler was Juan.” The two kept in touch via social media, where Sabine would see the pictures of delicious-looking food and drinks Juan posted. When she was looking to begin Global Café, she reached out to Juan. After flying him out to Memphis for two days and pitching her idea, Juan was all in.
Juan was integral in hiring staff, and Sabine points out that he was especially helpful in trying all of the dishes as Sabine, who adheres to a vegan diet, was unable to try all of the food.
“I think that we formed such a fantastic partnership. And that was really where the magic happened.”
The Early Days
Global Café is located in a former Sears distribution center and Sabine recalls the pop up stand the team began with, as they waited for the restaurant to be completed.
“So it was literally our general manager and our first chef…And they were selling food for lunch out in the hallway just behind where our current location is. We would cook the food in a commercial kitchen of an organization in the building, and then they would set up and just sell lunch out of there.”
The Global Café team established themselves right before the Covid-19 pandemic struck the world, but Sabine explains how the team was able to pivot and stay afloat.
“I remember I pulled an all nighter one night, moving our system so that people could place online orders because people [were] not allowed in restaurants. They could just come and grab and go. So that’s something we just had to implement overnight.”
Though there were hard times, both from the inevitable difficulties of opening a new business and from the unexpected chaos of the pandemic, the team continued to meet each challenge. Sabine says her personal motto should be, “It all worked out,” and she credits this to the continued support she has received, and the hard work she and the team have consistently put in from the start, and hiring people who understand the mission.
Sabine self-funded the business, and acknowledges that perhaps her lack of interest in grants or other options was due to her lack of experience, but for her, the risk was worth it.
“It is a big risk but again, I never thought it would not work.”
For Sabine, the hustle of entrepreneurship is not just worth the outcome, but part of the enjoyment.
“Specifically the first few weeks before we actually opened a brick and mortar restaurant, it was just such a small group. It was basically my general manager, our first chef, myself, and then one of my kids and one of my first chef’s kids. It was such a small, tight community, and we just had that mentality of whatever it takes. If we have to sleep here and get it done, we’ll get it done. If we have to start doing it all by ourselves, we will get it done. Some days, I miss those days.”
Stories of Change
Sabine notes that when she thinks of Global Café over the years, there are several stories that come to mind for her. “I remember the first time, Ibti, our first chef from Sudan, told me that she would be able to pay off her house,” she says. “Another employee, Maria, was able to buy her first car ever. Another employee, Fayha, from Syria, she was able to buy a house, and then we’ve had at least two, possibly three employees become U.S. citizens, including our general manager, Juan. And I was at that ceremony, and that’s just pretty fantastic.”
Some of the changes people have experienced thanks to Global Café have been due, not to the paycheck alone, but to the business model itself.
“And we all learn from each other which was part of our mission from day one. We have a big community table in the restaurant right behind me…which is part of getting that feeling of togetherness for our staff, but also for customers. And we want people to know about our customs, our food, our music, our way of doing. And, that translates also within our staff. So our general manager, Juan, knows many Arabic words. I use يلا يلا (yalla, yalla), to say ‘Hurry up, go,’ a lot now. We just all learn from each other and we do have the United Nations. It’s really cool.”
Sabine shares her goal of changing hearts and minds by connecting people to one another, using the example of former employees who have worn hijabs, which are headscarves worn by many Muslim women. “If you’ve never seen somebody wearing a hijab…you’re fearful, possibly, and you don’t understand and you judge. And so just seeing those women that are giving their everything, cooking for you and that they love on you through their food, hopefully we shift your thinking a little bit.”
Being a Good Neighbor
For Sabine, the goal was never just to create a business, but to affect positive change within her community, and the team at Global Café has had no shortage of opportunities to do just that. Whether it was providing thousands of meals to hospital staff during the Covid pandemic, or providing nutritious meals to the unhoused during winter shutdowns in Memphis, Global Café has always shown care and love for their community. They have even gone beyond using their gifts as cooks and have made monetary donations to their community through the donation of clear backpacks to students at a newcomer school, and partially funding a DACA scholarship at a local university.
Sabine says, “It’s just something that we feel like we have to do. It’s part of being a good neighbor.”
Plans for the Future
While Sabine says she’ll never be completely satisfied because there is always more work to be done, she derives purpose from the work she does every day.
“Seeing people with a smile on their face—whether they are back of the house, front of the house, on the customer side, returning customers, people building friendships, customers with staff that they know each other, know their families and all the grandkids and the grandparents and so on—that just means everything to me….those are the moments that just keep me going.”
Conclusion: Transforming Lives
For Sabine, impact means changing people’s lives for the better in a tangible way.
“We changed somebody’s mind. We economically empowered somebody. We made a difference. That’s impact to me.”
So if you find yourself in Memphis, stop by Global Café and try out some of their popular cuisines, like the Mexican Asado bowl, Dama with Rous from Sudan, Thupka soup from Nepal, or Kuku Paka from Kenya and get a taste of the atmosphere of togetherness that has been intentionally created there.
“We always say that our first ingredient is love,” says Sabine. “So that’s what we’re all about.”
Learn more at Global Café’s website, or connect with them on Instagram and Facebook. You can also find Sabine Langer via her LinkedIn page.
