Small World Cafe opens its doors in Youngstown
By Joan Janzen
joanjanzen@yahoo.com
The Village of Youngstown is just a short drive from Oyen, 59 kilometres to be exact. The village’s motto is “Where quality of life meets opportunity.” A couple of the approximately 150 residents who call the village home recently seized upon an opportunity and opened a new business. It’s called Small World Cafe, and it opened its doors on Thursday, January 14th.
The cafe is located at 301 Main Street and is housed in a brand new building. Lester Klassen, manager of the cafe, explained that he and his father-in-law, Ian, were looking to start a project that would benefit everyone in their community.
“I wanted to do a youth centre, but Ian was interested in a restaurant since there was no place for families to go for a meal or have a cup of coffee. Hanna and Oyen are the closest places for people to pick up something to eat. So this is what we came up with. It was something we both could work at, and I was willing to manage it,” he said.
The men began designing a building in 2018, and a local contractor started construction in 2019. “I did some of the interior finishing and helped with the framing,” Ian added. The building is about 2500 square feet in size, and the seating area is estimated to be thirty square feet.
Now the cafe is up and running. “We’re busier than I thought we would be. It’s been really good. There’s young families in town, and we’ve had some kids from the high school drive over for lunch. I guess it was a good a time as any to open because people want to get out of their houses,” Lester said.
The cafe is open Monday to Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and is closed on weekends. “It would be cool to be open on weekends, but it would mean extra employees. Plus, we want to maintain our family life,” Lester said. “We’re doing it 100 percent in order for the community to have something to enjoy. Ian loves to help people any way he can, and he is pretty good at keeping the community alive any way he can.”
“We’re take out only,” he said, which is due to the current health regulations. But, Lester said it gives them time to figure out how to run things efficiently before they’re allowed to have customers sit down to a meal inside.
Diane is the cook at Small World Cafe. She has lived in the Youngstown area for 25 years and has always enjoyed making meals for fall suppers and branding events in the community. Now she is making all the treats, soups, breads and sandwiches for the cafe. “We cannot be more thrilled to have such a talented cook,” Lester said.
“We hope this will be a great addition to our little town,” Lester said. He’s also hoping people travelling on the highway will take a small detour into Youngstown and stop in for a bite to eat or a cup of coffee, latte or ice cap. “We’ve got a little bit of everything.”
It certainly sounds like a cozy little place to take a break, and online ordering will soon be available for patrons’ convenience.
Photo: Dianne is making all the treats, soups, breads, sandwiches, etc for the Small World Cafe. Dianne is married to Jerry and has lived in the Youngstown area ranching for 25 years. SUBMITTED PHOTO