Refuge Cafe To Open 2nd Location at Sky Harbor

By Frontdoors Staff

The Refuge Cafe will open a second location inside Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on July 31.

A ribbon-cutting for the new local coffee shop and wine bar, which will be located in Terminal 4 at gate B9, is set for that day with Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, Vice Mayor Laura Pastor, and Councilman Michael Nowakowski scheduled to attend, according to Performance Management Consulting, which made the announcement.

“We thought it was a great opportunity to expand our brand and expand the message of what it is we’re about to a larger audience,” Steve Capobres, managing partner of The Refuge Café, told Frontdoors Media. “We’re excited about the ability to promote the fact that we’re a social enterprise of Catholic Charities and people can learn about what we do and hopefully support what we do. Not just by buying our coffee in the airport but also learning about what we do and hopefully supporting us in other ways.”

Founded in Central Phoenix, The Refuge is a social enterprise of Catholic Charities Community Services supporting services for the community’s most vulnerable. The Refuge Coffee l Food l Wine at Sky Harbor will serve gourmet coffee, made-to-order breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, as well as beer and wine.  The airport location will open at 4:30 a.m. daily and travelers can expect sandwiches, salads and a breakfast menu that ranges from freshly made muffins to The Refuge Breakfast Burrito filled with bacon, eggs, cheese, and avocado.

“The Refuge Cafe is an absolute gem in our Melrose District, combining great coffee, food and wine with a community mission that empowers and lifts up our refugee community,” said Mayor Stanton. “Adding a location at Sky Harbor will show travelers from around the world who we are in Phoenix — a warm, welcoming and supportive community with opportunities for everyone.”

Capobres said the Café helps everyone: foster care families and those looking to adopt, homeless, refugees and veterans. They also operate a veterans shelter and domestic violence shelter and develop affordable housing.

“So really any need that’s out there we’re trying to serve and we’ve been doing this for now going on 85 years,” he said. “Obviously it takes resources for us to do what we do and so we try to find different ways to attain resources to be able to fund our program. So getting the public’s help is certainly a part of that but also doing it through ways through business – what we make from the sale of a coffee goes right to helping the people we serve.”