Michele StuevenIt was just a year ago when Oleksii Kochetkov fled his demolished Ukrainian hometown of Mariupol for Los Angeles, bringing with him his wife Inna and mother Olena, leaving behind the bombed-out family business and father Sergey, who perished when a Russian missile hit their bakery as he was making bread.
He spoke little to no English and had a small amount of money to his name. Upon their arrival, the family survived by doing what they knew best — feeding others. They recently opened Mom, Please, the only Ukrainian restaurant in L.A., a tranquil cafe in Playa Vista’s secluded Fountain Park. Reflecting on the last year’s worth of transitions and wounds that are still healing brings tears to the restaurateur’s eyes.
With the help of the U.S. government, the family hit the ground running starting a mail-order business in L.A., making dumplings, vareniki, cabbage rolls and other Ukrainian dishes out of their apartment. Three months ago they opened the cafe and expanded with various dishes from Olena’s recipe book including borscht, salads, cheesecakes and a variety of syrniki, cottage cheese pancakes, which are much sexier than they sound — small pillowy puffs swimming in warm custard and topped with juicy seasonal berries.
Mom, Please in Playa Vista (Michele Stueven)
Upon leaving his homeland, Oleksii also left behind businesses in eight different areas, including sushi bars, a café, a pizza restaurant, barber shops and car washes. They chose the Playa Vista location because the majority of the orders came from that neighborhood. The name comes from Oleksii’s memories of asking mom to please cook. In addition to a loyal customer base of local Ukrainian immigrants, the cafe also enjoys a solid Asian clientele who come for the dumplings.
“We would like to convey Ukrainian culture in our cafe through food, service and the interior of our establishment,” the shy refugee tells L.A. Weekly via interpreter. “Yes, we really have achieved great results in a year. God helped us in this, we worked very hard. From the first day we arrived, we didn’t stop for a minute and worked every day. We are so grateful to the Ukrainian and American community in Los Angeles, who come to our cafe and support our endeavors. Our concept is to produce a quality product and provide quality service in a modern Ukrainian environment. We keep moving forward because we have no other choice. Our goal is to build a network throughout America so that every city has a Ukrainian corner where people can touch Ukrainian culture. As my father Sergei, who died in Mariupol while feeding people, said, ‘Set out to finish the job and be the best in your field.’”
Syrniki and borscht (Michele Stueven)
Vareniki (Michele Stueven)
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