LIFE is wont to throw lemons, but at the newly-launched Dochas café in the heart of Limerick City, workers on the autism spectrum are making them into delicious lemonade.
The Makers Room is a social enterprise café located on the top floor of the Dochas building on Parnell Street in the heart of the city.
Although it only had its official opening in the past couple of months, already it has been nominated for a number of awards, including Best Café in Limerick at the 2025 Irish Restaurant Awards.
It’s a place where autistic adults can get training, work experience opportunities, and employment in a supportive environment.
Workers learn skills like barista coffee-making, public-facing service, commercial food hygiene, and food prep skills.
“Upon arrival at our building, you will be greeted at the main door by one of our team and asked to sign in, then you will be brought to the elevator and guided up to us, our café is fully accessible,” said Dochas spokeswoman Catherine Hartigan.
The coffee is brewing from 9.30am to 4pm Monday to Friday and 3.30pm on Thursday.
The team serve a large selection of hot drinks, SOMA coffee and hot chocolate, and Barry’s tea, fresh baking every day, homemade soup and sandwiches, sausage rolls and, for when life throws lemons, the café makes its own lemonade.
“We have a created a beautiful space here in the heart of the city for people to come and have coffee, meet friends, or just chill and revive the spirits. The success of this project depends on public support,” explained Catherine.
“Our ASD community is one of the most distanced groups from the jobs market but here at The Makers Room Café we are working hard to change that statistic by creating an appropriate workplace and providing a lovely service for our city.”
