Food just like Baba used to make

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/06/2020 (2120 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A small Ukrainian take-out place is serving comfort food during a very uncomfortable time.
Kozak Food, located at 2082 Ness Ave., reopened for business on May 5, after closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Kozak offers Ukrainian take-out classics like perogies, cabbage rolls, borscht and other items.

For Lesya Harasymyak, who runs the restaurant with her husband, Yaroflav, it was their dream to serve authentic Ukrainian food in Winnipeg.

“Back home, we had (a) restaurant. When we came to (Canada), it was always my dream to open a business here,” Harasymyak said. “When I was a little one, I would always help my (family) cook. It’s not easy to make perogies by hand … but I really enjoy it. We work hard to make it like we did back home.”

Harasymyak grew up in Lviv, Ukraine. After meeting Yaroflav, they moved to Portage la Prairie in 2000, where she helped make perogies and other delights for church fundraisers. The couple moved to Winnipeg about six years ago for work.

Harasymyak was dead set on starting her own business. With Yaroflav’s support, they started to draw up a business plan. She took a few business courses and the couple opened Kozak Food in 2016.

Since they reopened, they have taken extra precautions to sanitize everything. They’ve installed a plastic screen and they clean the door handle and debit machines after every  customer leaves.

Harasymyak said people in St. James have supported their business.

“Business is good, (a lot of our) old customers came back, they were really happy we were open again. We’re slowly getting back to normal, back to our regular business,” Harasymyak said. “I want to say thank you so much to all our customers. (St. James) is a really good neighbourhood, everyone (has) supported us. We would like to continue to make people happy.”

Kozak employs two people to help in the kitchen while Harasymyak and her husband do the cooking. They serve a number of Ukrainian classics, with a few lesser-known dishes that have grown in popularity, such as chebureky, pompushki and perishky.

According to Harasymyak, chebureky is a big hit when she introduced it earlier in the year. It’s a lightly-fried turnover filled with pork, a popular street food across eastern Europe. She stresses that everything is made by hand, with fresh ingredients.

For more information or to place an order, call Kozak Food at 204-615-9991.