The East Village is filled with unicorns — quirky shops, restaurants, and museums that attract people from all over the city as well as tourists. I spent last Saturday visiting one of my favorites, Pavlo Mochi, to celebrate its first birthday.
Pavlo Mochi opened in April 2025, offering unique mochi creations influenced by owner Pavlo Servetnyk’s culinary studies in Asia along with the flavors of his native Ukraine. In contrast to the more familiar mochi consisting of ice cream inside a rice dough covering, Pavol’s mochi features mousse with a rotating list of flavors. Among the regulars are my favorite, the Mango, Passion Fruit, and Vanilla mochi (“soft rice flour shell with vanilla mousse made from cream cheese and cream, mango passion fruit pure” [sic]) and Aunt Ruth’s favorite, Banana Milk Jam (“soft rice flour shell filled with creamy banana mousse made with heavy cream and cream cheese, with a rich dulce de leche center”). Special creations include chocolate shell mochi and one with a lemon shell covering the rice flour. This spring’s seasonal additions include a citrus mochi and tres leches. And don’t forget the coffee and lemonade! I haven’t tried the coffee, but the tangy lemon and ginger lemonade is my favorite. Sometimes in summer I just get the lemonade; not too sweet, it’s perfect for a hot day. Last summer Pavlo offered matcha soft ice cream, and I hope it makes a comeback this year.
Pavlo enjoys experimenting, and I’ve tried ones that worked (the Lemon Brownie Mochi) and ones that didn’t (chocolate chip cookies with a mochi rice flour inside). He and his mostly Ukrainian staff approach their work with a sense of humor, pride, and kindness toward each other and their customers. Their location on the east side of Avenue B between E. 12th and E. 13th Streets doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic, but I hope that some new restaurants opening in the area will bring more customers for dessert. When he opened last year, I recommended that he move some equipment from the front to make room for small tables, and over the winter, he did just that. Now there’s seating inside for people to gather, which makes Pavlo Mochi an ideal third space in the neighborhood.
Many of Pavlo’s East Village neighbors don’t know that this young baker — winner of the 2019 “Master Chef Ukraine” contest, which allowed him to study culinary arts around the world — is also a national hero. He grew up in Kherson, in the south of Ukraine, and the first major city to be overrun by the Russians after their invasion. At the time, he had a pizza restaurant, and his story continues here and here. When he came to New York City, he worked at a Ukrainian fusion restaurant in West SoHo, Slava, until it closed in 2024, and now he’s going out on his own with his unique dessert creations.
The birthday celebration was crowded, and the city’s Ukrainian community came out in full force. I tried the special birthday cake mochi, with pieces of cake in the filling, and think it should be part of Pavlo’s regular rotation. Pavlo wore a too-small birthday hat that looked more like a unicorn’s horn than a birthday hat, as it should be. I hope more people come to know this precious unicorn in the East Village in the months and years to come.
