The name “Wilde Café” was first breathed to life in early 2018 during one of many late-night conversations between founders Alex & Rhys Pugatschew. We were playing around with concepts and really appreciated the above quote by 19th-century poet and playwright Oscar Wilde.

 

Discontented with the lack of safe-spaces in Red Deer, Alberta for the LGBTQIA+ community to be themselves, the idea sparked between us as a vivid “what if” scenario. We merged this idea with our desire to someday run our own coffee shop, and were immediately sold; what better way to provide a comfortable, safe atmosphere than a café?

 

Over the next year, Wilde took a backseat to the mundane trials of life, though we often found ourselves speculating about how we would do things once our café was up and running. Finally, a year later almost to the day, we were having coffee with a couple of friends when the topic of LGBTQIA+ spaces came up. When Rhys and I suggested our Wilde concept, we were blown away with how eagerly our friends leapt at the idea. That got us thinking.

 

Our someday needed to come a lot sooner.

 

Ever since that conversation, we have been actively working toward making our Wilde idea a reality. Although it will be a few years before our idea becomes more concrete, we are working hard to ensure that Wilde will do justice to the LGBTQIA+ community.