Mom, Please Brings a Comforting Taste of Ukrainian Food to L.A.

Where and when did you first get into the restaurant business? 

My journey into the restaurant business began back in my teenage years. Every summer, I worked at my grandmother’s café, Kalmius, in Mariupol. It was a legendary local place, known for selling up to 3,000 chebureks a day. My mom and her sister worked there too, and I helped out as a young administrator. That was my first real experience of what hospitality meant — teamwork, family, and food made with love.

Later, my parents opened their own café, and I guess you could say restaurant work became our family tradition. Over the years, I fully committed. In Ukraine, I opened and ran more than 20 restaurant concepts, each with its own story, atmosphere, and regulars. 

The last project I created before we had to leave Ukraine [in 2023] was “Alisa” — a specialty coffee and brunch café in Kyiv, named after my daughter. We started building it right before the full-scale invasion, and by the time it was ready to open, we were already in the process of evacuating. Even now, despite the war, life in Ukraine goes on. Many of the projects I started there are still going. 

How did you end up in Los Angeles and why did you decide to open a restaurant?

Our move to the U.S. — and to Los Angeles specifically — happened suddenly and under extreme circumstances. We were urgently evacuating my mother from Mariupol during the siege. We lost my father, and it became clear that we couldn’t wait. In one of the Ukrainian community groups, we learned that the U.S. was accepting Ukrainians and that there was a way to enter through Mexico. So we took a leap of faith.

When we arrived in Los Angeles, we had no clear plan. We had never built a business abroad. In the beginning, my mother coped with the grief of losing her husband and the trauma of forced emigration by doing what she knew best: cooking. She poured herself into preparing traditional Ukrainian dishes to remind her of home. We started sharing her meals with new friends and neighbors, who began sharing it with their friends, and soon we were introducing Ukrainian cuisine to more and more Americans. That’s how the idea for delivering homemade frozen Ukrainian meals began.

When it came to funding, we tried to attract investors, but no one believed in our idea. So we rented a dark kitchen, personally delivered every order, and built a loyal customer base. Based on that, we were eventually able to secure a private loan from someone who believed in our vision.

Can you explain how your family works together in the restaurant business on a daily basis? 

The heart of Mom, Please is Olena, my mother. She’s our head chef and the soul of the kitchen. She creates the menu, decides what dishes are served, ensures quality control, and works six days a week. Dishes like varenyky, pelmeni, and syrnyky require incredible attention and manual labor and she oversees them all. 

I lead marketing, creative direction, operations, and overall strategy. Inna, my wife, is the voice of Mom, Please in the community and online. She supports the restaurant’s presence in the influencer space and is well connected with both the Ukrainian and L.A. audiences. She often appears in videos, sharing our family’s story and dishes.

And we simply have to mention Artur Volosovych, our general manager and someone who has been part of our extended family since our time in Ukraine. Artur is an essential part of Mom, Please. He supports the business not just as a manager, but as someone we trust completely. His presence brings consistency, reliability, and heart to everything we do.

And last but not least, there’s Alisa — our daughter, and our official taste tester. Every new dish must pass her honest (and very discerning!) palate before it goes on the menu.

How does the menu get created, and what are your favorite dishes? 

We’re not trying to be trendy or reinvent anything — we’re here to preserve and share the foods that have been loved for generations. One of our signature dishes is turkey pelmeni. They’re not just delicious, they’re part of our family story. My mother used to make them for my father; they were his favorite. For me, they taste like home.

These pelmeni aren’t on our regular menu — we only make them special days, like Father’s Day, as a tribute. They’ve become a signature here not because of trend or demand, but because of the story they tell. Another standout, and probably our most loved dish, is our syrnyky, sweet cottage cheese pancakes that are crispy on the outside, tender and fluffy on the inside. We serve them with seasonal fruits, homemade sauces, or sour cream.

What is your favorite way for a customer to experience your restaurant?

Our favorite way for a guest to experience Mom, Please is to slow down, settle in, and feel at home. We love when people come with family or close friends, sit on our sunny patio, share a few dishes, and take their time. We also love when someone tries Ukrainian food for the first time, and their eyes light up. That moment of discovery is everything. 

Where do you see yourselves fitting into the larger L.A. dining landscape, where, sadly, Ukrainian food is not very common?

Ukrainian cuisine is still underrepresented here, and we feel honored to help fill that gap. Our goal is to introduce Ukrainian flavors in a way that feels authentic and accessible, with food that’s comforting and heartfelt. We’re proud to be somewhere that Ukrainians can reconnect with a taste of home, and where Angelenos can discover something new. Sadly, the war has forced many talented Ukrainians to emigrate. But we believe that along with the people, Ukrainian culture and cuisine can grow in in new places too. 

What is the future for Mom, Please?

Our vision is to build a large, full-scale restaurant, with an open kitchen/production area, where guests can see the process and feel like part of it. We want to offer baked goods, three meals a day, and a selection of frozen products. We’re aiming for a space with 100-150 seats. We’d also like to expand into retail across the U.S. with our line of frozen Ukrainian dishes, making these flavors available beyond L.A. 

For us, Mom, Please is just the beginning — we’re building something bigger than a restaurant. It’s a movement to bring Ukrainian food, culture, and hospitality to the broader American table.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.