A year ago Dmytro Khozin was volunteering to help get food to deoccupied territories in his home country.
Now he spends time in Vancouver's West End managing VanLove, a new sushi shop on Robson Street offering maki rolls, specialty sushi, coffees, and more.
VanLove is the city's first Ukrainian-style sushi shop, Khozin says. He and his business partner opened it up in May. Both are recent arrivals from Dnipro, Ukraine (Khozin arrived first in October 2022).
Both were also working in Dnipro's food scene, Khozin was managing a local chain of Georgian (the European one) eateries while his business partner, Serhii, ran a sushi place. With that experience, they decided to take a shot in the same business on the other side of the world.
Ukrainian sushi
Khozin says Ukrainian-style sushi is essentially like typical sushi, but there can be a few differences, especially in specialized rolls.
"First of all we have a different dressing for the rice," he explains, noting citrus flavours like orange and lime can be used.
"Also, we put more cream cheese, and we use different amounts of ingredients," he adds.
That means the construction of something like a Philadelphia roll (aka a Philla roll) is different, with salmon on top and cream cheese inside. This makes the rolls a little bigger.
"A lot of people who come here say they've never tried such rolls," Khozin says. "Some people come back and some say it's not for them."
"In Ukraine, it's pretty popular, and in Poland, Russia, Kazakstan, that area," he adds, noting it's his favourite as well.
Getting used to Vancouver
While Ukranian-style sushi isn't that different from what most in Vancouver are used to, Canadian bureaucracy caught the new business owners off guard.
"We went to install the sign. I had to get a permit for the installation of the sign and a permit for the electricity to connect the sign and we had a permit for the sign in general," explains Khozin. "Three permits for one sign."
It's a much more competitive market, too, he says, along with higher costs for labour and rent.
Despite this, he and his family (he moved with his wife, who created the art in the restaurant, and his young child) are enjoying Vancouver.
"We really like Vancouver and we were excited to go to Canada and we wanted to express our feelings through this restaurant," he says.
Getting the food
Vanlove is open at 1755 Robson St. from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. There are also pick-up and delivery options; Khozin notes that they're on delivery apps, but they prefer pick-up since the delivery apps take up to 30 per cent of the restaurant sales.
