Our story · Odesa to Midland
A story carriedacross the ocean.
Before Odesa was a restaurant in Midland, it was six generations of family history, a marriage built from scratch, and a belief that food could still bring people home.
Where it began
Built side by side in Odesa.
Sergey and Christina Pokanevych met in Odesa and married in 2010. Christina was studying law. Sergey was already working as a cook in a restaurant kitchen and building his professional career one station at a time.
They were young, with no family wealth or ready-made path to follow. They began their life together from scratch and built it step by step. Over the years, Sergey became a chef and co-owner of restaurants. Christina supported that journey while building the work around it: an online culinary blog, a cooking school, marketing, and the video content that introduced Sergey's cooking to an audience of more than one million people.
Six generations of their family were born and lived in Odesa, a Black Sea city shaped by many cultures, languages, and culinary traditions. The restaurant's name is not simply a reference to a place. It is a family inheritance carried into a new home.
Discover the city behind our name
When everything changed
Cooking became a way to serve.
On February 24, 2022, Sergey, Christina, and their ten-year-old son, Leon, woke to the sound of explosions. Russia's full-scale invasion had begun, and the life they knew changed in a morning.
With food in restaurant warehouses, Sergey and his team began preparing hot meals for people arriving at train stations from war zones and for families waiting to reach safety. Cooking was the work they knew. In a moment of fear, it became a way to be useful.
As the war continued, the constant threat of missile attacks made it impossible for the family to give Leon the safety every child deserves. They made the painful decision to leave Ukraine for their son—not because they wanted to leave the home they loved, but because staying had become too dangerous. Through Uniting for Ukraine, they arrived in Michigan without relatives, an established business, or certainty about what would come next. They did have one another—and the belief that they could begin again.
They could not carry their former life with them. They could carry their craft, their values, and the habit of building together.
A new home
Midland became home through people.
After a few months in Michigan, the family moved to Midland. Sergey worked as a chef, Christina worked in marketing, and Leon entered an American school and began learning English from the beginning.
At a Global Compassion community dinner, Indira and Ed Oskvarek invited Sergey to share Ukrainian food and a part of his family's story. That evening, Dr. John Pfenninger and his wife, Kay, listened to Sergey's dream and asked how they could help. Sergey answered, “Help me reclaim my life. Help me open a restaurant.”
Indira, Ed, John, and Kay were among the first to believe in what the family could build here, and their faith encouraged many others to stand beside them. Sergey and Christina remain deeply grateful to them—and to the many Midland neighbors who turned encouragement into a new beginning.
When Chef Sergey's Bakery opened in January 2025, the line stretched outside. By 11 a.m., every item prepared for the day had sold. Guests came through the doors saying, “Welcome,” and “Thank you for opening here.” For nearly a month, people arrived with gifts. It was the moment the Pokanevyches understood that Midland had not simply made room for them. Midland had embraced them.
June 23, 2026
The promise becomes a restaurant.
The bakery gave Midland its first taste of Sergey's standard: food made from scratch, carefully chosen ingredients, and hospitality that feels personal. Odesa by Chef Sergey is the next chapter—their first restaurant in America, owned and created by Sergey and Christina together.
On June 23, 2026, they purchased the former Antonio's Restaurant building at West Wackerly Street and Eastman Avenue. They are redesigning it with respect for the place it held in the neighborhood and a clear new purpose: to bring the spirit of Odesa to Midland through warm hospitality, European dining, and Ukrainian soul.
Built together
Sixteen years. Two strengths. One vision.
Culinary vision
Sergey leads the kitchen, develops the menu, and is the public face of Odesa. His cooking connects professional technique with the flavors, generosity, and memories of home.
Creative & business direction
Christina leads creative direction, brand development, marketing, and business operations—the work behind the scenes that turns their shared idea into a clear, consistent, and lasting business.
The next chapter
A piece of Odesa, created for Midland.
The restaurant will bring together Ukrainian flavors, European technique, seafood, meat, vegetables, and recipes made from scratch. The goal is not to build a museum of the past. It is to create a living, welcoming restaurant where families, friends, and generations can discover something new and still feel at home.
Odesa is not an attempt to recreate the past. It is Sergey and Christina's way of bringing the generosity of their first home to the community that gave them a second one. Every detail—from the menu and design to the service and atmosphere—is being created so new memories can begin around the table.