Ukrainian Refugees Bring a Taste of Home to Midland, Michigan

The team at Chef Sergey’s Bakery

Fresh sourdough at Chef Sergey’s Bakery

Photos courtesy of Chef Sergey’s Bakery (sergeysbakery.com)

Sergey Pokanevych and Natalia Iakovleva fled the war in Ukraine and, after roughly two years rebuilding their lives in the U.S., opened Chef Sergey’s Bakery in Midland, Michigan, in January 2025.

The bakery, tucked into Midland’s historic Ashman Circle, sells scratch-made European breads — sourdough, rye, French baguettes — alongside Ukrainian specialties like traditional Ukrainian cake and pistachio custard croissants, served with Raf coffee. For a community that hadn’t had a bakery quite like it, the shop quickly became a neighborhood fixture.

More than a business, it’s a way for Pokanevych and Iakovleva to share the culinary traditions they carried with them out of Ukraine — turning displacement into something the people of Midland now line up for.

More than a year later, the bakery is still baking, still busy, and still telling a story of home rebuilt one loaf at a time.