Marabou Café foods are cooked with less oil and fat for a more health-conscious choice.

Marabou Cafe will soon offer cocktails to enjoy alongside their popular Haitian fare.

Sisters Paulette Firmin and Guylene Innocent have been dishing out Haitian food at their restaurant Marabou Cafe in Mattapan Square for almost a year.

Now, with a newly approved liquor license, the duo will soon be pouring beers and mixing cocktails for patrons alongside plantain cups and fried snapper.

Firmin had long hoped to build a sit-down restaurant that would encourage locals to linger.

“We had the intention to have a place where friends can come and sit down, family, kids from work, from school, parents can sit and have a meal with them and assist them with their homework while they’re eating,” she said.

A mural painted on the restaurant wall by Firmin’s daughter features figures in colorful, traditional Haitian attire dancing and playing drums. The restaurant offers takeout, but cozy booth seating and upholstered chairs encourage diners to eat in.

The idea to add cocktails to the experience for an even more relaxed feel came from Mayor Michelle Wu, who visited the restaurant in 2025 and encouraged them to apply.

Firmin and Innocent are registered nurses. Firmin ran a restaurant while living in Miami. Innocent still works as a nurse, but Firmin dove into the cafe full time as the primary chef.

Their nursing experience does come in handy, says Firmin. They cook in a more health-conscious way with less oil and fat and they’re easily able to accommodate safe meals for patrons with specific diets like hypertension or diabetes.

Some of the most popular dishes at Marabou are traditional Haitian meals like griot, a marinated pork shoulder; and legume, a savory vegetable stew. Diners can customize their dishes by choosing fried or grilled preparations and two sides from a list of rice, plantains, fries, steamed vegetables and fritay.

On Sundays the restaurant serves Soup Joumou, a traditional dish associated with the Haitian Revolution. Legend has it that this was the dish consumed when Haiti won liberation from French colonial rule in 1804.

When the liquor license becomes effective, Firmin says Marabou will start serving weekend brunch and staying open until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. This expansion will allow Firmin to make the restaurant the community gathering space she’s always envisioned.

“The goal is to make everyone feel like they’re home,” says Firmin. “When they eat the food I want them to remember where they come from, I want it to bring them home.”

ON THE WEB

Learn more at maraboucafe.com