A little slice of Europe opened in Parma Heights this past summer with Cafe Blanc, a trendy, light-filled coffee shop and restaurant owned by Volodymyr Yaremko, which he runs with his fiancee Christina Gabyak.
“I used to live in Ukraine and used to travel Europe, even while I was living there, I was traveling to Italy, France, Switzerland, all the countries out there,” Yaremko says. “I just was missing the European vibe in Cleveland, and especially in Parma Heights, because there’s not much here.”
Adjacent to the Ukrainian Academy, a daycare Yaremko’s sister Halyna Dutka runs, the cafe has been a quick hit for its Instagrammable interior, carefully selected coffee menu and from-scratch cooking — and, also, for bringing a local coffee shop to an area that lacks that sort of thing.
“It means the world to us that people are supportive of our business because we were very nervous that people would think, Oh, they don’t know what they’re doing, they’re young,” says Gabyak. “We put our whole heart and soul into this.”
Lots of Light
The polished interior was an intensive project for Yaremko — particularly standout features like a wallflower mural with seasonally changing elements, hanging bench seating and, most strikingly, hundreds of feet of carefully draped DIY LED cotton-rope lights that Yaremko crafted by hand and wired into the custom configuration. The 29-year-old business owner aimed to use all natural materials in the shop’s decor, leaning into neutral browns and off-whites — “like coffee and milk.” A spiral staircase transports customers to a second floor, overlooking an olive tree near the entrance. But the thing that pulls it all together was specific to the corner of the building, filled with natural light from an abundance of windows.
“I was like, ‘This is it, this is where I can make a cafe — and I have a vision for it,’” Yaremko recalls.
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Scratch-Made Menu
Gabyak poured into her passion of cooking with Cafe Blanc, and crafted a menu of sweets, pizzas, sandwiches and, recently, soups. Desserts are a customer favorite, Gabyak says — particularly varieties of crepes ($12-$16) and tarts ($6-$9), including the pistachio flavor.
“We don’t buy pistachio paste; we literally get our own pistachios and we blend them up to make our own paste,” the 22-year-old chef points out.
On the lunch end, standouts include the spicy zuppa toscana ($9), sourdough flatbread pizzas ($14-$20) and the “eggcrepewich” ($16). Cafe Blanc was an entirely new adventure following her work as an intensive care unit nurse.
“All of my cooking experience was all just recreational, personal,” Gabyak says. “Since I was a little girl, I just always loved cooking.”
Community Coffee
One blind spot for Yaremko and Gabyak turned out to be coffee.
“Neither of us are coffee drinkers,” Gabyak says. “I mean, we’re slowly turning into them now, but it was challenging, to say the least.”
The two, who had initially dreamt of owning a restaurant, researched coffee bean sources and invested in an espresso machine, and they asked surrounding community members to test various coffee beans with daycare teachers who shared the building to reach their decision of using 8th and Roast beans. They also encouraged baristas to bring their own experience and styles into the menu.
“Most of the baristas are European; one of them was a barista in Poland for a long time,” Gabyak says. “So it was really cool to get all the different parts of the world, and they have their different techniques.”
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that Volodymyr Yaremko is the sole owner of Cafe Blanc.
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