Eleftherios Panapakidis

Lantana Group

Shelagh Ryan, Michael Homan and Caitlin Ryan, opened the first Lantana Café in 2008 to introduce to London everything they loved and missed about the thriving Australian café culture. Five restaurants, four coffee shops, five children and a cookbook later, they are committed to their original vision – to make Lantana one of the best cafes in London, a part of your life's rituals and another reason to fall in love with London, like they have. The name comes from a beautiful flowering plant that was transported from South America to Australia by immigrants where, because of its hardy, tenacious nature, it took hold, becoming an iconic Australian plant. A weed of national significance and an apt metaphor for the company as it too has thrived on foreign soil.