Cafés in Odesa

With all the new establishments popping-up, complimenting the already established favourites, theoretically it is possible to visit a different café everyday and never see the same place twice. The only problem is finding one that caters to the early-bird westerner - most cafés don’t open until after 9:00. When the locals finally roll out of bed they tend to congregate at their favourite cafés where they soak in the fresh aromas and quietly recover, like alley-cats licking wounds, from whatever adventure they happened upon the previous night. Most places offer extended and often extravagant menus making that trip to a restaurant a redundant gluttonous frill. Odesa’s historical diversity is represented in the variety of its cafés. Italian, Ukrainian, Jewish, Belgian, Greek, Middle Eastern and French establishments all put their own original ethnic spin on the drink that connects us all: coffee.