IVANO-FRANKIVSK, Ukraine – The restaurant’s doors open at 6 a.m. to greet the first visitors. It’s the exact time when one of the most popular passenger trains, the No. 43K from Kyiv, arrives in the regional capital situated in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains.
It just takes
a 10-minute walk from the railway station to reach Urban Space 100 restaurant
located next to the oblast administration building in downtown Ivano-Frankivsk,
home to 226,000 residents. However, it is not an eatery bent simply on feeding
people and turning a profit.
Urban Space is a social enterprise, comprised
of 100 paying founding members, mostly from Ivano-Frankivsk, but also from
Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa and even from Moscow.
Established on Dec. 6, the idea belongs to Yuriy
Fylyuk, the founder of a group of 23 urban cafes and eateries called 23
Restaurants. All the contributors made a $1,000 donation during its founding.
And that’s how the city, and Ukraine, got its
first community-backed restaurant.
The first community-backed restaurant in Ukraine, Urban Space opens at 6 a.m. (Photo by www.facebook.com/urbanspace100)
Yulia Lyakhovych, the coordinator of the
project, recalls that the team decided to create a place that brings together
ideas for social projects helpful for the city – building new children
playgrounds and bikeways, redesigning city parks – and their potential funders.
Lyakhovych explains that at least 80 percent of
income the restaurant gets will be spent on the social projects. Other 20
percent goes to the managing company headed by Fylyuk.
“We want to make Ivano-Frankivsk a warm city,
friendly for people,” Lyakhovych explains, referring to the “Warm City”
initiative that unites the activists and businesses of the city aimed to
develop the visual brand of Ivano-Frankivsk, the city with vibrant
centuries-old architecture and narrow cobblestone streets.
Everyone within or even outside the founders’
team can pitch the idea – then the founders could lobby the most interesting
ones during the meetings. The group usually meets four times a year and decides
on the idea to finance by the vote.
“It’s our version of Verkhovna Rada,” Yaroslav
Doroshenko, a local architect and one of the founders, says with a smile. He
said that during the discussions, however, they are unanimous when it comes to
decide on how their native city should look.
Doroshenko recalls he was one of the first to know about the idea from Fylyuk and
was eager to join the project, because it is “unique.”
“It’s also a chance for everyone to improve the
city and its infrastructure, so we can make it more comfortable for people,” Fylyuk
says, adding that his family and friends supported his involvement.
They are going to take part in upcoming meeting
in July to decide on their first project to invest, because the restaurant is
just reaching the payback period. However, it quickly becomes the favorite
place not only for tourists, but also local businesspeople and even moms with
children.
It also
becomes a platform for presentations, projects discussions, film screenings and
other non-commercial events, according to Lyakhovych. For such events the space
is provided for free.
Lyakhovych
says that her son likes to spend time here after school.
“It’s much
more fun for him to do his home assignments here, rather than at home,” she
explains.
Urban Space
offers an interesting little menu and serves delicious and cheap salads, soups,
coffee and desserts. Vegetable cream-soup will cost Hr 24, while meatballs with
baked potatoes will take some Hr 49. Bittersweet lavender infused cappuccino
goes for Hr 28.
The place
is vegetarian-friendly and offers English-language menu.
Other cities may soon catch up with Ivano-Frankivsk’s
example.
Iryna Gavchuk became inspired to help Kyiv get its
own urban space restaurant. She checked Urban Space in Ivano-Frankivsk during
May holidays and met with coordinators for the negotiations.
Gavchuk said she liked not only the well-planed
menu, but also the atmosphere. She now looks for collaborative food community
to get the project off the ground. Gavchuk, however, doesn’t disclose any
details before they start the fundraising.
Urban Space 100
Ivano-Frankivsk
19 Hrushevskoho St.
+38-066 633 88 82
How to get there: Overnight
direct Kyiv-Ivano-Frankivsk train No. 43K.
Kyiv Post staff writer
Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected].
