Cafe Ukraine Ottawa

About the business

Cafe Ukraine describes itself as a volunteer project of CYM Ottawa, the local branch of the Ukrainian Youth Association: a community cafe and drop-in centre that helps newcomers meet one another and get settled in their new community. It works out of a beige two-storey house at 911 Carling Avenue in Ottawa, on the corner of Sherwood Drive, near Dow's Lake.

The cafe opened on 24 June 2022, about a month in the making and three months after Russia's full-scale invasion. Capital Current reported at the time that it was a joint project of the League of Ukrainian Canadians and the Ukrainian Youth Association of Canada, open Tuesdays and Fridays from 6 to 9 p.m. and Saturdays from 2 to 9 p.m., with wifi and refreshments on tap to help people socialise and exchange information.

Inside there is chess, there are musical instruments, board and card games, and traditional Ukrainian food and drink — that is what a reporter found there in November 2023. The schedule the cafe publishes on its own accounts today is the first and third Tuesday of every month, 18:00 to 21:00, and it has posted that it closes for the month of August.

Since September 2024 the house has also carried the free English classes and settlement services that ran at Maidan Market until it closed on 31 August 2024. The Ukrainian Community Centre donated the space, and the money comes from private donors, events and fundraisers. A Ukrainian-speaking settlement counsellor from Jewish Family Services Ottawa works there two days a week.

The English Conversation Program at the cafe is run by volunteer tutors of the English Language Network for Ukrainians and costs the learner nothing. In February 2025 it counted 94 active students, 41 classes a week and 22 volunteer tutors. Cafe Ukraine also came out to UAFest 2024 in Carleton Place as one of the festival's vendors.