Copyright Charleston Post and Courier
WEST ASHLEY — A photograph of Aleksandr Pavlichenko is framed and leans against a backdrop of a blue and yellow Ukrainian flag. The memorial table is the first thing one sees after entering Euro Foods Bakery & Cafe. A blown-out candle stands in front of his smiling face, surrounded by cards, a blue and yellow wreath and sunflowers — a Ukrainian symbol of resilience and national pride. It’s all for Pavlichenko, who died in September at age 52. The atmosphere is bright and neat, and an employee smiles brightly before Maka Aptsiauri, his business partner and wife, takes a seat at a table beside a sign representing her homeland. The word “Georgia” and a cluster of grapes on the sign depict a part of the Eastern European country bordering Russia and Turkey that she is proud of. Music plays through a television’s speakers, competing with the tenor of her voice. She is solemn and brief at the start, answering questions about meeting Pavlichenko when he first opened the store in 2006. They met in the early days of his new business venture and married in 2009. She talks about competing in the Republic of Georgia’s equivalent of the cooking competition “Chopped” with her daughter in 2021, where they represented Southern classics: shrimp, grits and fried green tomatoes. She discusses product sourcing and increased pricing since war broke out between Russia and Ukrainian. And she proudly calls attention to CHS4Ukraine, the nonprofit that they started in March 2022. The store owners felt the support of the Charleston community then, Aptsiauri said, when hundreds of people contributed and together raised 26,000 pounds of donations and humanitarian aid to send to Ukraine, along with monetary donations. “It was so heartwarming to see how people came together in the beginning of the invasion,” Aptsiauri said. “It was big.” Now, after her personal loss, Aptsiauri said she’s felt the community support continue. ‘I always feel his presence here’ In 1996, five years after the Soviet Union fell, Pavlichenko moved to the United States, looking for opportunities to build a life. As a young man in his early 20s, the prospects in Ukraine were grim. He had hopes of living the American dream. Once he moved to Charleston in 2006, Pavlichenko became known in the Slavic immigrant community as the go-to guy. He was always willing to help, Aptsiauri said, whether someone’s car broke down or they were looking for a job or a lawyer. In 2019, the popular store he had debuted 13 years earlier relocated to a larger location. With a strong team working at the shop, Pavlichenko’s involvement at the new location lessened, and even more so in the past year when he was diagnosed with the illness that eventually took his life. Messages of condolence flooded Euro Foods’ Facebook page, phone line and funeral guestbook. Funeral attendees struggled to find parking, and friends and members of the community stood in line for up to an hour to pay respects at the viewing. “Some people even say our community is never going to be the same without him because he was a person with a big heart,” Aptsiauri said, holding back tears when she spoke of him. Cody Eckles, a co-owner of Silk Road Bakery, said the Eastern European community is not an easy egg to crack, but the store’s founder welcomed everyone with a smile and a joke. “Sasha was a very kind man,” Eckles said. Eckles and his wife, Nargiza, met Pavlichenko in Euro Foods' previous location when Eckles was looking for a familiar taste of Ukraine and Russia after serving as a Russian linguist in the Navy. “When I came in, I would always hear Sasha tell other customers, ‘That’s Cody, he’s American, but he speaks Russian,’ ” Eckles said. “I always laughed to myself when I heard him. He had the ability to … bring a smile, make (people) laugh … even Americans felt welcome.” When the Eckles’ opened Silk Road Bakery last year, Aptsiauri and Pavlichenko were rooting for the two, “telling us to stick with it.” Their support meant a lot to the new business owners, who specialize in bao buns, milk bread and desserts from Nargiza’s native Kyrgyzstan. “The last time I saw Sasha was at Costco,” Eckles said. “He was smiling and happy as ever, even joking about his hair growing back after chemo.” Though his absence is being felt across the community, no one has been hit harder by the loss than Aptsiauri, who shows off a portrait of Pavlichenko recently hung near the wall by the cash register. “I always feel his presence here,” she said. That presence, and a desire to share her culture with the Charleston community, is enabling her to push forward at Euro Foods Bakery & Cafe. Culture, cuisine and community Since Pavlichenko passed away, some have asked Aptsiauri if she is considering selling the store. “No,” Aptsiauri said adamantly. “We’ve been around for so long. My husband tried so hard to bring his business to where we are today, and he was so proud of that.” When Euro Foods expanded its physical footprint in its new location, the couple added “Bakery and Cafe” to their name in pursuit of Aptsiauri’s dream to have something of her own. Since working in the restaurant industry after moving to the U.S. from the Republic of Georgia in 1999, Aptsiauri wanted to give people a taste of her country’s dishes. She created the menu with Ukrainian and Georgian influences in mind, with dishes like plov, borscht, pierogi, pelmeni, blini and khachapuri. The couple split responsibilities. “He was managing the market and I was managing the cafeteria.” Aptsiauri spent the first three years of the cafe’s operation on the line, setting up the kitchen and developing recipes. Eventually, she entrusted the cooking to others. The cafe’s chalkboard menu lists specials like chicken schnitzel, meat dumplings with mushroom cream sauce and Polish hot dogs, drawing inspiration from other European countries’ dishes. Occasionally, Aptsiauri offers Georgian dishes that aren’t as trendy as the cheesy khachapuri, like kharcho, a rich beef and rice soup in tomato broth. Patrons tell her that the food is reminiscent of home.
