Plate It Forward Hospitality Group has just launched its latest venue, Kyiv Social, located in a beautiful heritage-listed building in Broadway, Sydney. Kyiv Social follows the universal ethos of the group: creating equal opportunity across the table.
Like every Plate It Forward initiative, Kyiv Social evolved from a community member’s request for an opportunity to authentically showcase their food, culture, and stories. It was a conversation with Plate It Forward founder, Shaun Christie-David, who was coincidentally chatting with a charity helping newly arrived Ukrainians, that brought Kyiv Social to life.
Currently, more than 15 newly arrived Ukrainian community members are employed by the Plate It Forward Group, joining a hospitality family that has previously employed 140 community members excluded from mainstream employment and donated 400,000 meals globally to those in need.
Set in a heritage-listed building that once housed the Reserve Bank, this historic site will now host an equally historic restaurant. Kyiv Social continues the venue’s recent tradition of accommodating social enterprise initiatives in its sandstone walls. It has been generously fitted out thanks to the expertise and partnership of construction management firm Building Guild. Incorporating traditional Ukrainian elements, the venue features parquetry flooring, yellow and blue hues, grand chandeliers, and a 10-foot-high wall mural on the restaurant’s façade, featuring Plate It Forward’s Restaurant Consultant Nadia Mohylna’s mother. This mural follows the motif present in all Plate It Forward venues, celebrating and paying respect to mothers for the love and support they give through home-cooked food and family recipes.
The food and beverage offering at Kyiv Social follows the style of Plate It Forward Hospitality Group’s first venture, Colombo Social. It celebrates dishes with maternal influences and modern interpretations. The menu has been created by a team of hospitality experts, including Julian V. Cincotta (Rockpool, Nomad, Butter), Travis Harvey (former Executive Chef at Ozharvest), Vincent Dyevoich (from Michelin-starred restaurant Dovetail and the New York Times-rated 3-star restaurant Colicchio & Sons), Ukrainian cultural consultant Nadiia Mohylna, and Ukrainian Head Chef Borys Chernyk (formerly the Executive Chef at the fine dining Ukrainian Restaurant Selfish). The dishes on the menu represent an elevated reimagination of traditional Ukrainian dishes.
The menu features a hero dish ‘Kyiv’, a large shared-style double-breasted Bannock Burn chicken served on a generously sized plate with homemade fragrant butter. This special Kyiv Butter, known for its irresistible richness, accompanies various other dishes, including the well-known Ukrainian Pampushka, a delightful combination of soft, crispy, and fluffy dinner rolls.
Diners who go with the set menu will contribute one meal each to those in need in Sydney and Ukraine. Plate it Forward has already donated 150,000 meals to people in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Mexico. To expand their social outreach, Kyiv Social will host a weekly free lunch for newly arrived Ukrainians, fostering community connections.
The restaurant aims to support newly arrived refugees from Ukraine, encouraging them to showcase the positive aspects of their community. It also seeks to involve the people of Sydney in a movement for tangible societal improvements. Despite the seriousness of the challenges, the team at Kyiv Social and Plate it Forward prioritises fostering a sense of fun and community. Kyiv Social serves as an additional Plate It Forward venue through which Australian patrons can contribute to global change by offering employment and meals to newly arrived Ukrainians, as well as supporting those who remain in Kyiv.
- Where: Kyiv Social 202 Broadway, Chippendale NSW 2008
- When: Wednesday to Friday 5:30pm-10pmSaturday 12pm-3pm, 5:30pm-10pmSunday 12pm-3pm, 5:30pm-9pm
- Find out more here