'A gathering place for families': Ô Village creating community in Quebec City

When you enter the Ô Village café in Quebec City's Limoilou neighbourhood, you feel like you're walking into the home of a friend.

You kick off your boots and, making your way over to the counter to order a coffee, you may have to side-step a playing child.

A claw-foot tub filled with pillows sits in the middle of the room — a perfect place for toddlers to take a nap.

The squeak of a swing hanging from a ceiling pipe mingles with the babbling of children climbing up into a wooden structure and zipping down a plastic slide.

Fany Sinodinos and Alexandra Simard, who opened Ô Village last September, said they were inspired to start the business because they felt a similar place did not exist to take their own children to. 

"Families come and come back, so it feels like it answered a need for families," Sinodinos said.

Simard describes the space — which isn't officially a café, according to zoning rules — as "a gathering place for families."

"You don't have to be a family to come," said Sinodinos. "We like it when students come here, or if grandparents come with their grandchildren."

"It's not just for mothers on maternity leave. It can be parents who want to spend an hour with their children outside of their house after daycare."

On a Thursday morning, more than half a dozen children, ranging from 18 months to 10 years of age, fill the café with an excited chatter. All are home-schooled, and most are here for a weekly yoga class.

Simard, a yoga instructor, offers a class most days. Nearly every week, someone holds a discussion group on a topic such as language development in children, or a sewing workshop or photography class.

Eight-year-old Niamh Kinsella-Frenette says this café is unlike others she goes to with her mom. She particularly likes the wooden structure and slide she refers to as a "treehouse" and swing.

"This [place] is more cozy and warmish," she says "I have much more fun here than at other cafés."

The Kinsella-Frenette family moved to Quebec City from Europe a little more than a year ago to be closer to family. Mom Helen Kinsella says community is a core value for her family, and they have found a community of sorts at the café.

"The owners seem to really value [community] and that's expressed in how they've designed this place," she said. "It's open. It's welcoming. It's in a neighbourhood that does seem to value community, as well."

Kinsella says the good coffee and cakes served at the café are a "bonus."

The owners of Ô Village are both vegan and serve vegan-only food. They have also adopted a zero-waste philosophy.

Andreann Larouche, a mother of three, says she can tell her children feel free when they are at Ô Village.

"It's fun, because frankly there's not much space like this in public spaces," she said, "They can be well behaved when we are out there, but in this café, they can really be themselves and play and be kids."