MALIBU—On Monday, June 15, the Malibu couple Howdy and Linda Kabrins reopened their old restaurant Howdy’s Sonrisa Café located at the intersection of the Civic Center Way and the Cross Creek Road. The restaurant had previously been closed by the couple, since their daughter Gabriela Kabrins Alban was murdered in 2015 by her boyfriend Diego Novella.
When the couple first closed their restaurant in 2015, Gabriela Kabrins Alban was murdered in South Africa by her boyfriend, the Guatemalan billionaire playboy Diego Novella. He reportedly killed her by strangulation in Camps Bay Hotel on July 2015. After this incident, the couple moved to Cape Town in South Africa to seek justice for their daughter and ensure Novella was punished.
They lived in Cape Town for three years going through legal procedures for the murder. During this time, Howdy had pneumonia and was robbed. He also faced a shortage of money as he was forced to close his business to pursue a legal investigation in South Africa.
In September 2018, the Western Cape High court at South Africa convicted Novella for murder and sent him to prison for 20 years.
Howdy’s Sonrisa Café, which has the slogan “serving pride and love” as seen from the website https://www.howdyscafe.com, offers a California coastal and Latin cuisine. The eatery used to be located at the Country Mart, but the owners decided to tear it down in 2015.
In 2020, the Kabrins have decided to re-open the restaurant, but this time at a different location. The new restaurant is located in the park at Cross Creek, near the Whole Foods Market in Malibu. It is open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. and is open for a dining-in option as well.
