BROOKLYN —
Dmytro Kucher calls home every 15 or 20 minutes to check in with his mother in Ukraine.
His mom is nearly 5,000 miles away in Zaporizhzhia, where bombings have become routine for her and the rest of Kucher’s family.
Kucher, who debated returning home to fight when the war broke out in late February, ultimately decided to stay in New York and build his business. He uses his mother’s recipe for the crepes he and his business partner, Dana Ponomarenko, sell at Black Milk Coffee and Crepe—one of the only Eastern European cafes in Crown Heights.
Now he and Ponomarenko are using their cafe as a platform to support the war efforts in Ukraine.
