In the heart of Ottawa’s Centretown, a new café has opened as a place to grab a coffee and as a sanctuary for community, creativity and connection. The EveryPerson Café is owned by Daniyal Zafar, who wanted to make the place different from usual cafés.

“For this particular project, it was really kind of a need in the city, in Centretown especially,” said Zafar. “One of the things I always looked for was a place that was open late, that was a coffee shop.”

The idea for The EveryPerson Café was born from Zafar’s personal experiences and observations. Having lived in Centretown for five years, he recognized a gap in the availability of coffee shops that remained open late. Many establishments in the area catered primarily to nightlife patrons, leaving limited options for those seeking a quiet and productive environment. Zafar then posted on Reddit, a platform he uses often at his day job in tech, to ask Ottawa residents what they desired in a café.

“So after I got to see such a big, kind of response from the Ottawa community on Reddit, I thought that this is gonna be a good place to do it,” said Zafar.

After that, he and his brother decided to open this and name it The EveryPerson Café, a name which also has a special and personal meaning to them.

“This name here, started off because my parents came to Canada twenty-five years ago. They essentially said that everyone was, so kind and welcoming, no matter what, kind of background they were coming from, they were always just so willing to help them out and make sure that they were in the right place,” said Zafar.

He wanted this café to be a reflection of that sentiment.

“We live in kind of interesting times, but I wanted to make sure that everyone is still welcome, and people still feel always welcome here,” he said. “No matter where they’re coming from, this is a home for them.”

Zafar said that the café is different from other big change suppliers because of its initiative to support local businesses.

“So our food supplier, coffee supplier, it’s all generated locally,” said Zafar. “That was another huge thing for us was we wanted to make sure that we supported Ottawa and the Ottawa area as much as we could. So over 90 per cent of that was in this particular area.”

Their sandwiches come from Olga’s Deli, an Italian deli with a 30-year history, while their pastries are sourced from Little Joe Berry’s, a well-regarded vegan and gluten-free bakery. Additionally, their coffee is supplied by Brownback Coffee Roasters, a Gatineau-based roaster.

Another distinguishing feature of The EveryPerson Café is its emphasis on art and creativity. All the art in the café is done by one person.

“We might be the only coffee shop in the city with an in-house artist,” said Zafar. “He’s on our payroll, working part-time, and his entire job is to create art inside the café.”

Like any new business, The EveryPerson Café faced its share of challenges. Opening during the winter months presented difficulties in attracting customers, as Ottawa’s harsh winters tend to discourage people from venturing out.

“The good thing in that is, it gives our team a chance to learn everything during the slow season,” said Zafar.

Working in a new café is an opportunity for people to learn how to do it easily.

“I started working here in November before the café opened,” said Val Brady, the general manager of the café. “When I was first here, it was just tarps everywhere, smelled like fresh paint. But, you know, already I could see the vision he had in mind, as well as my vision for the café, and it’s coming together really nicely.”

Brady said that he likes the amount of interaction he gets to have with people be it regulars or new customers.

“I come here sometimes on my day off just to get work done because it’s a nice, cozy spot,” said Brady.

Zafar says he wouldn’t want to open another location, but he would like to grow this place more by doing different things and not just be a regular café.

“It’s not like a place that I would be, like, this can be replicated. It requires so much. It requires the thing that’s not just money, but also a lot of love. And you can’t replicate that in every place you go.”