For 70 years, Veselka has been serving up authentic Ukrainian cuisine in New York City, and its legacy lives on in their new Williamsburg location.
In 1954, the New York City staple was brought to life by Volodymyr and Olha Darmochwal, grandparents of current owner Jason Birchard, in the East Village.
“So you might consider our early days sort of like the Ukranian bodega, Jason’s grandparents immigrated to the United States, fleeing Russian oppression in the 50s, settled in the East Village, which is Little Ukraine,” said Justin Birchard, Director of Development at Veselka. “Veselka started as a kind of newsstand/coffee shop and slowly over time, expanded the menu and food offerings and also the physical footprint of the restaurant and building it into what it became today.”
Tom Birchard, Jason’s father and Justin’s uncle, took over for the Darmochwals several years later, with Jason taking the reins in 2020 and Justin joining in 2022. The team has since opened a kiosk in Grand Central Terminal and has found great success in an e-commerce platform.
Veselka has been well-known over the years for serving delicious, authentic Ukrainian food. Among the more popular items on the menu include the pierogi/varenyky, which come with a variety of fillings such as the classic potato, cheese, and braised beef, but also take a modern twist with the bacon, egg and cheese dumpling.
Some other go-to items for the Veselka menu include chicken noodle soup, beef stroganoff, borscht, and potato pancakes.
“It’s hearty, stick to your ribs, homemade like your grandma used to make kind of food,” said Birchard. “It’s a place that people have, have fond memories of from their youth, maybe early morning breakfast or late night lunch dinners, whatever the case may be.”
At the beginning of June, Veselka opened up its first Brooklyn location in the heart of Williamsburg. Located at 646 Lorimer St., the new Veselka location serves up the same classic fare that customers know and love from the brand’s East Village store.
For the Veselka team, taking the brand to Williamsburg was a no-brainer.
“We have seen other restaurant concepts that are neighbors of ours in the East Village move over to Williamsburg and have a lot of success. We always felt that Veselka was bigger than just the East Village and wanted to branch out,” said Birchard. “It’s a neighborhood that Jason and I both like a lot, and I happen to live here so I know it well.”
To celebrate the opening of the new store as well as Veselka’s 70th Anniversary, the store teamed up with Katz’s Delicatessen to create two new items, starting with the Pastrogi.
“We wanted to do a special collaboration with an iconic New York brand. Jason happens to know the owner of Katz’s from some previous TV engagements. When we reached out, we came up with the idea of doing a pastrami-filled pierogi, which we are dubbing ‘the pastrogi,’” said Birchard. “We serve it fried or boiled with a side of Bavarian mustard and it’s been a huge hit.”
The pastrogi is available for dine-in or take-out and is also available for nationwide shipping. Veselka and Katz also created The New York Classics Package featuring Veselka, available on Katz’s website. The package includes one dozen of Veselka’s classic potato pierogies, Katz’s hand-carved pastrami and all the classic fixings.
“I think Slavic cuisine traditionally is a little underrepresented in America. We’re looking to launch a line of frozen pierogies, and our hope is that it will be available in grocery stores locally, regionally, and maybe one day nationally,” said Birchard. “We love the brand and its legacy that it had through the generations in our family and the lives that it’s impacted in New York. We want to spread that as much as we can.”
This story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site amNewYork.
