Website The Kafana
Eclectic team serving up Eastern European food and fun events
About The Kafana:
The Kafana opened in October 2024 in Century Village in downtown Belleville. It’s owned and operated by Corinne & Myra, a queer, immigrant couple who’ve lived in Belleville since 2018. Our team is culturally diverse and includes both Canadian-born members and immigrants from Europe and around the world. Our team is also diverse in genders, orientations, neuro-types, and more. We value diversity and are philosophically committed to including and highlighting everyone’s diverse strengths and experiences.
The Kafana “vibe” is traditional-yet-contemporary, blending a rustic village atmosphere with a modern presentation of our favourite foods and drinks from around Eastern Europe and nearby. We’re an “upscale casual” environment, where guests may come for a tea and read a book, have a date-night, or bring a whole crew of family and friends for a giant family-style meal, or set up with their laptop for a coffee, cookie, and work party. We offer mixed seating options to suit this variety of use-cases, and even host community events like poetry slams, cultural gatherings, live music events, and folk dance lessons. We love our regular customers, and we strive to keep our experience top-notch, reliable, and low-cost, so folks can come enjoy the Kafana as often as they like without thinking about budget.
We accept reservations, but we do not “turn tables” – aka we want guests to stay and enjoy. We’ll never kick you out or “need your table.” Posted closing time is last-call, not the time we kick anyone out. This is an intentional part of our approach to hospitality.
Mission and Values:
The Kafana was inspired by numerous places, people, and moments — sometimes in kafanas around the world, other times around a village table at home. There is a real and tangible “something” that happens when good people gather with good food and make good music.
“Kafana” essentially means “cafe” or “taverna,” but for us it’s more like home. You don’t know who you might find there, but you know you’ll find some friends and some family. It’s a social hub of the village community – a place to drop by, a place to stay a while. In Europe, these cafes stay open late and the atmosphere is welcoming for all ages. Don’t be surprised to see small children dozing off on the benches, or grandmas sipping coffee or rakiya and tapping their feet to the music.
Our mission is to create this atmosphere here in Belleville – to create a place where our friends and neighbors can come, relax, eat & drink, and stay as long as they like. It’s not a bar, though we do have a bar here. It’s not quite a restaurant either, though we do have delicious food here. It’s not really a cafe either, though we have plenty of coffee for you, too. It’s hard to explain – it’s just “the kafana,” and we hope you’ll help us make it everything you want in a place.
Our favourite kafanas come alive from the people who love them and want to spend time in them. So please, tell us what you want to see on the menu, at the bar, on the playlist. We hope The Kafana will bring you lots of joyful memories and moments for years to come.
Core Values: Prioritize Joy, Lead With Humanity, Preserve Dignity, Prosper Together
Team Description:
We are small, tight-knit team, and everyone participates in multiple aspects of the day to day operations of the business. Each person has their specialty, and their area of responsibility, but we strive to keep everyone “cross-trained” as much as possible. Everyone pitches in, from mopping the floor to covering shifts for each other.
Team members starting in customer-facing roles start training with order-taking, drink preparation, and food-running as well as light dishwashing and cleaning. As they’re with us longer, they’ll cross train to learn sone elements of the kitchen side – cold dish and dessert plating, etc.
Team members starting in kitchen roles will start training with food order preparation, but you’ll also participate in kitchen cleaning routines, dishwashing, food-running to tables, and food prep, etc. As you’re with us longer, we’ll cross-train you to also understand how the customer-facing duties work – taking orders, making drinks, etc.
Our team works together to understand the needs of each role, so we can anticipate and prevent issues, make smart improvements, help make each other’s jobs easier, and keep guests having a great time. We work hard, we problem-solve passionately, and we communicate bluntly.
Our goal is to create a top-notch team of talented individuals who can flex and fill in any role, so we can stay agile, grow together, and maintain balanced lives with easy coverage for vacations, sick days, or just keeping things from getting boring! 🙂
We know most folks have a “happy place” – some out front, and some in the kitchen – so we’ll ask you later on to tell us where you shine!
Job Requirements:
Relaxed in fast-paced, high-pressure environments
Reliable, flexible, and adaptable
Confidence and initiative
Comfortable following procedures and systems
Creative, quick problem solving skills
People skills for service industry/hospitality role
Ability to work positively with a diverse team
Ability to stand for long periods of time
Bar/coffee experience a plus
Kitchen/cooking experience a plus
Additionally, a great-fit candidate has experience with or passion for Eastern European or Mediterranean cuisine and/or culture. Ability to communicate in Ukrainian language is a plus. Interest in cross-training to other roles also a plus.
Kitchen staff will be asked to complete their Food Handler Certification upon hiring. Bar staff will be asked to complete their SmartServe Certification upon hiring.
Starting/training wage is $20/hr plus tips. Tips are pooled and distributed equally to all team members, proportionate to hours worked each pay period.
Reviews and raises every 6-12 months based on performance.
Roles are part-time hourly, with room to expand to full-time, as well as opportunities to grow into management roles.
We also feed you, send you home with leftovers, make you ample coffee drinks, and host quarterly team-building fun events for ourselves 🙂
We are actively seeking new team-members to begin training in the following roles:
Cook/Kitchen
Especially with evening/weekend availability and looking for 15+ hours per week
Barista/Bartender/Server
Especially with evening/weekend availability and looking for 15+ hours per week
Temporary dishwasher/cleaner
For evening help with dishwashing, closing kitchen (cleaning floors, cleaning cook surfaces and cookware,) taking out trash, cleaning equipment, etc. Approximately 2 hours (8pm-10pm ish) Wed/Th/F/Sa. Temporary casual coverage with possibility to become permanent team member.
We are also interested in hearing from applicants who do not fit the above specific/current needs but are uniquely qualified and motivated great-fits for our team in general.
To apply for this job please visit www.thekafana.ca.