Eugene Voronin

"Коффишка"was my first job in the coffee industry. There’s not much to say about it, as it’s not a comfortable place to work for the long term. I gained experience in preparing coffee drinks and communicating with people and then moved on to a better place for me.

What I learned:

• Became acquainted with coffee and beverage preparation.
• Communication with people.
• Maintaining the cleanliness of the bar/area.
• Working with coffee equipment.

My next place of employment was Central. It’s a cozy coffee shop in the center of Kharkiv near Freedom Square. I first came there to work as a Barista. Soon I became the senior Barista. There were two of us on a shift. We switched places throughout the day, one person at the cash register, another at the coffee machine.

The responsibilities included:

• Taking orders and settling payments.
• Preparing coffee/tea drinks.
• Making lemonades.
• Serving desserts.
• Maintaining the cleanliness of the bar (we had a woman who maintained the cleanliness of the hall).
• Communicating with the cooks (we had a kitchen and a waiter who served the orders).

My responsibilities as the senior barista included:

• Introducing new items to the menu.
• Searching for interesting coffee lots.
• Implementing accounting.
• Mentoring.
• Quality control of the bar’s work.
• Communicating with employees, identifying problems, and solving them

In Ukraine, in 2020, COVID began, everything closed down and stopped working. I found a job as a bartender at a hotel in Obzor, Bulgaria.

I gathered my thoughts, prepared the documents, and went.

This was a seasonal job for the summer.

It was interesting for me to go to another country to work.

There were many foreigners among the guests, and it was interesting to communicate with them as there were people from different countries, including Ukraine.

My responsibilities included:

• Working behind the bar.
• Serving alcoholic beverages.
• Handling payments at the cash register.
• Consulting with guests.
• Communicating with people.
• Maintaining the cleanliness of the workplace.
• Preparing the bar for service.
• Closing the bar after the shift.

After I returned from Bulgaria to Kharkiv, I found a job at a new coffee shop that had just opened called Twinkle. I recommend searching for it on Google and immersing yourself in the atmosphere of this coffee shop. It was a very stylish coffee shop that replaced my first job, quite the irony.

But at the start of the war, a shell fell near it, and the coffee shop is beyond reconstruction. That’s sad. This coffee shop was one of the most stylish and best in Kharkiv. At this place, I met many interesting people with whom I still communicate to this day.

My responsibilities included:

• Preparing coffee drinks.
• Taking orders.
• Serving desserts.
• Preparing alternative coffee brewing.
• Maintaining the cleanliness of the bar.
• Ordering desserts.
• Introducing cash register accounting.
• Introducing inventory management in the coffee shop.
• Cleaning the bar.
• Maintaining cleanliness in the establishment.

After leaving the Twinkle coffee because we couldn’t agree on work conditions with the employer, I moved to the Black&Milk coffee.

We couldn’t agree because I was doing a lot of work for little money, and he liked that because he was saving money, so I left and moved to a better place for me.

And so, a new experience in my life and the last one in Kharkiv is the Black&Milk coffee.

The coffee shop is located on a large food court called “7 sklad.” It was built on a wasteland in the center of Kharkiv. I’ve always been drawn to youthful, hipster places where everyone knew each other and had fun both at work and after.

People of absolutely different ages came to Black&Milk. Families with children came because it is a fairly large area where you can have a great time.

And so, what I learned and what my responsibilities included:

• Preparing drinks.
• Communicating with people.
• Taking orders.
• Settling accounts with people.
• There were three of us on a shift because there was a very large flow of people. We always changed throughout the day. One person was at the cash register, the second brewed coffee and made cold drinks, the third whipped milk. Of course, we always supported and helped each other in different situations.
• Maintaining the cleanliness of the bar and hall.

After the shift in the evening, we brought milk, coffee, etc., to the bar to prepare everything for the next morning. Because people came straight in the morning and there was no time for this, there were large volumes.

This job taught me to understand people even better, to understand their psychology and how to act better in many situations. It also improved my skill in working with coffee.

But I decided to move to Kyiv.

I moved to Kyiv and two months later the war started. Ukraine began to be shelled by Russia. I moved to a couple of cities in the western part of the country. I managed to work in a local coffee shop in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk. Two months later, I returned to Kyiv and found a job at "Каштан".

"Каштан" is a cult place in the capital of Ukraine. A place about people and for people. A place about communication and interaction. A place where you can sit quietly in the courtyard with a crow, read a book, play table tennis, or just enjoy the cozy courtyard in the center of the beautiful city of Kyiv.

And yes, it is one of the best coffee shops in Ukraine, in my opinion, the best. Its cult status speaks for itself.
"Каштан" is a symbol of Kyiv.

And so, what I learned here:

• Communication with a large number of people of different ages, nationalities, and views on life.
• Communication with a large team.
• Improved skill in preparing coffee drinks.
• Trained new employees.
• Fast, quality service with a large number of people.
• Maintaining the cleanliness of the bar and hall.