In Honor of Its 70th Birthday, Veselka Opens a New Outpost in Brooklyn

I’m on a hunger-inducing tour of Veselka’s kitchen at the venerable Ukrainian restaurant’s new outpost in Brooklyn. Massive pots of purple borscht are simmering, sizzling potato pancakes come fresh out of the fryer. Would I like to try some plump Pestrogi, the brand’s pastrami-stuffed-pierogi collaboration with Katz’s Deli? Don’t mind if I do. “But this time of year, you can’t go wrong with borscht,” proprietor Jason Birchard tells me as New York bakes in a heat wave outside. “The potato and short rib pierogies are amazing, too.”

Veselka is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, its original East Village location a Big Apple institution that became something more than a place to simply chow down. It seems everybody in New York has a story about a late night that began or ended at Veselka, from hungry NYU kids to the city’s artistic community, all wooed by affordable comfort food and its trademark frantic energy. Who among us hasn’t left there full and satisfied, bellies full of crisp chicken schnitzel or a bubbly Reuben sandwich?

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But aside from stories of hungry revelers devouring plates of kielbasa and platters of stuffed cabbage, the family-owned operation has since morphed into a bastion of Ukrainian culture; a safe space where natives of the European country convene to connect, reminisce, and, lately, vent.

“My grandfather who launched the business was a Ukrainian immigrant escaping Russian oppression in the late 1940s,” Birchard told me during a brief respite at his ever-bustling restaurant. “It’s sad to say, but that history is now repeating itself with this latest conflict between Russia and Ukraine.” Indeed, when Russian forces rolled into the nation in February 2022, Veselka found itself launched into the national spotlight and business boomed. However bittersweet, growth was in order. “We wanted to keep up with both the demand in the East Village and nationwide shipping,” Brichard notes. “So we knew we had to expand.”