It all started with a Ukrainian-American college student baking sweet treats in her Boston College dorm kitchen. Today, Ilona Znakharchuck runs Solodko, a Ukrainian-inspired bakery, with her sister Irina. 

 

The bakery opened in November 2022, combining modern desserts with those of traditional, Ukrainian cuisine. Started from scratch by the Znakharchuk sisters, the bakery has become a new place where Bostonians can come for a quick and sweet bite or for learning more about Ukrainian foods. Either way, the bakery’s story means more than just two sisters starting a company. 

 

In 2018, the Znakharchuk sisters visited their grandparents in Ukraine. They were inspired by the comfort and nostalgia of familiar tastes and foods, and wondered if they’d be able to bring their rediscovered love for traditional Ukrainian desserts to the Boston area. 

 

When the war had started in Ukraine in February 2022, the sisters sought to create a community space for both Americans and Ukrainians to support a local business while also bringing their culture to Boston. The best way to do this, they believed, was with food. 

 

Ilona was only a sophomore at Boston College, studying as a math and music double major, when she began commuting back and forth from her Westfield, Mass. home to bake. Occasionally, she’d even use the dorm kitchens; this is when she began to share her results with her friends. 

 

Ilona’s treats became beloved; she began to sell them to friends on campus and introduced those around her to new baked goods and traditional Ukrainian desserts none of her friends had ever tried before.

 

As Ilona began to bake desserts in her dorm kitchen while still sometimes traveling to her Westfield, Mass. home to bake there, her sister, family, and friends encouraged her to think bigger.

 

“I was getting tired of commuting back and forth from home to campus just so I could bake. I was getting tired of tiny campus kitchens. That’s when my sister suggested I could consider opening a bakery,” said Ilona. 

 

Opening a bakery, of course, wouldn’t be easy. The sisters were not only concerned about bringing something new to the Boston food environment, but also doing something neither of them had done before for the first time. 

 

Both sisters had been working finance jobs after Ilona had graduated in 2021, but with opening the bakery, they both knew it would take full-time dedication to create the idea into reality.

 

“I decided to enter an entrepreneurship program which would teach me most of the skills about business I know today,” said Ilona. “Without that program, I’m not sure where I’d be right now or if this could have even happened.” 

 

By the end of 2022, both sisters had left their jobs in finance to become permanent partners in running the bakery. With Ilona’s new entrepreneurship knowledge and professional experience in finance, it was enough to give Ilona the courage to dive into solidifying her new business. Along with Irina’s support, the two would now be able to commit to running Solodko full-time. 

 

The word “solodko” itself  translates to the Ukrainian word for “sweet,” connecting the name of the bakery to the Ukrainian roots of the sisters. While Ilona and Irina were raised in Massachusetts, their parents made sure they were still connected to their cultural background and family ties. The family’s visit to Ukraine in 2018 would be the first time the sisters had ever visited the country. 

 

“Luckily, Boston has a pretty big Ukrainian population,” said Irinia. “It made us feel less afraid about opening the bakery here in Brighton. This area especially has a large Eastern-European immigrant population.”

 

According to a 2007 study made by the Boston Planning and Development Agency, Allston-Brighton is the Boston neighborhood most populated by Russian and Ukrainian immigrants. At least 1,000 Ukrainian immigrants currently reside in the neighborhood. Since the start of the war, a report by GBH has stated that over 2,000 Ukrainians have fled to the state of Massachusetts. 

 

Around Brighton, you’ll find plenty of Eastern-European markets, including the popular markets Bazaar and Berezka. Still, most of them continue to be Russian-centered and do not provide modern takes on traditional foods.

 

“A big goal of ours was to make Ukrainian food palatable to the average Bostonian. We know there is a large Ukrainian population here, but we want to welcome others to try Ukrainian foods as well,” said Ilona.

 

One of their most popular desserts, the Medovik cake, is a staple Ukrainian dessert. Amongst all the more modern and familiarly American desserts, this cake is known for being one of the most traditional. 

“We still include plenty of desserts others would recognize. We understand we’re marketing to a different crowd, so we want something that everyone likes while it’s still also Ukrainian at the same time,” said Ilona. 

 

While Boston has a sizable Ukrainian immigrant population, a new take on a local business that pursues modernity is new and important. With the bakery opening in 2022, it brings a refreshing energy to an area that was already well-established by Ukrainians. The Znakharchuck sisters hope to continue to be a place of new and old, mixing Ukrainian tradition and an image of the American dream.