Gutted after ‘no one came’ to event, downtown Edmonton restaurant not giving up
Posted July 22, 2026 11:27 am.
Last Updated July 22, 2026 12:15 pm.
Imagine throwing a party and no one shows up.
That’s exactly what happened to downtown Edmonton restaurant Don’ya Ukraine’s Kitchen.
Its free Zumba class scheduled for this past Sunday saw nobody attend, despite invites being sent to 13,000 people, with several even registering for the class.
“Downtown isn’t always easy,” the restaurant wrote on social media Monday. “Yesterday, we showed up, set everything up, and waited… but no one came.
“Of course it’s disappointing. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past few years, it’s that building community means showing up — even when it’s hard.”
Don’ya tried again, rescheduling the class for Tuesday. This time, a few people showed up.
“As long as we can, we’ll try,” restaurant co-founder Janice Krissa told CityNews. “We’d love to see our customers happy, and we’d love to see this thrive.”
Krissa says “it’s really tough to do business” in downtown Edmonton. And she’s hardly the only one who feels that way.
Several downtown businesses have decided to close their doors this summer, with many of them citing lengthy construction woes and reduced foot traffic as partly to blame.
Greta, known for its arcade games and Edmonton Oilers watch parties, is the latest to pull out of downtown. Restaurants PlayWright, Kommune Café, and Khazana also decided to close for good.
Krissa says construction outside her front door led to her sales being cut in half.
“That really hurts,” she said. “Then we started to see other businesses close, and that was very concerning. They’re our mentors, they’re who we’re learning (from), we’re the new kid on the block. And when we’re seeing big names like Greta closing down, we have to pay attention.”
Downtown councillor Anne Stevenson admits city council could do more when it comes to safety and vibrancy. She says this month, council did ask administration for a business-friendly construction policy to make business owners’ pain more manageable, and worth the long-term gain, without hiking up property taxes.
“Paid parking and patio fees, that is part of the strategy to reduce pressure on property taxes, but at the same time, it can have an impact on businesses in other ways,” the Ward O-day’min councillor said. “I think what’s critically important is we’re making those investments through our downtown action plan to support businesses and bring Edmontonians to the core.”
That leaves Krissa hoping for relief sooner rather than later.
“There’s only so long that we can survive, right?” she said. “It’s not about how long we want to. If I could, I’d stay here forever. But at the end of the day, we have to pay our staff, we have to pay our rent, we have to pay our bills, and the food costs are very high.”
