Veselka

144 Second Avenue

In the 1930s, the building housed what was known as the Boulevard Restaurant.

On April 10, 1937, several young thieves tried to pull off a robbery of the late-night restaurant and gambling joint and ended up killing a plain-clothes cop. The incident became celebrated as the case of “the East Side Boys” and resulted in the execution of three of the seven youths involved.

Veselka

In 1954, the Darmochwals purchased a candy shop and newsstand at Second Avenue and East 9th Street in New York City in an effort to help Plast, the Ukrainian scouting organization purchase the building that housed its headquarters. Wolodymyr Darmochwal, an active Plast member, gave this venture the moniker "Veselka", from веселка, the Ukrainian word for "rainbow." In 1960, Darmochwal combined the candy store and newsstand with an adjacent luncheonette. The New York chapter of Plast still uses the building to this day.

In the following years, as the East Village became known as the Haight-Ashbury of the east coast,^[5] Veselka became a social center for a cross-section of the community that included old-world tradition and new-world counterculture.

Veselka was nearly forced to close in the mid-1970s, when the construction of the Second Avenue Subway (later canceled) resulted in street closures along the adjacent section of Second Avenue.^[6] By the time the New York City fiscal crisis hit in the 1970s, Veselka was a fixture in the neighborhood. It was able to expand during the economic recovery of the 1980s, at which time the row of phone booths at the rear of the restaurant came to be used as informal office space for East Village performance artists.^[7]

Veselka produces 3,000 pierogi by hand every day^[8] and uses 500 pounds of beets^[9] to make 5,000 gallons of borscht every week.^[10] The restaurant has attracted notable patrons including musician Ryan Adams,^[11] artist Sally Davies, director Bart Freundlich,^[12] performance artist Penny Arcade,^[13] comedian Jon Stewart and actors Julianne Moore, Chris Noth, Parker Posey, Justin Long and Debra Messing (who considers Veselka her "late-night mainstay" and her "absolute favorite place").^{[11][12][14][15][16][17]}

Veselka remains a family-run business: as of 2020, it is owned by Darmochwal's son-in-law, Tom Birchard, who began working at Veselka in 1967, and run by the founder's grandson, Jason Birchard. The founders' son, Mykola Darmochwal, maintains a role as consultant.

Veselka continues to support the needs of neighborhood residents and Eastern European immigrants: in 1994, its kitchen staff included four doctors, three from Ukraine and one from Poland, who had recently arrived in the United States.^[18] After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Veselka's daily patronage more than doubled, from 600–700 to 1,500, as many visitors wanted to express support for Ukrainians. The restaurant was also used to coordinate donations of supplies for Ukrainian refugees.^[19][20] Veselka halted 24/7 operations in the early 2020s due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then reportedly due to a labor shortage.^[21] In 2024, the restaurant announced that it would resume 24-hour operation on weekends starting that July.^[22]

Film and television

The restaurant has been used as a filming location for several films and television productions, including Trust the Man (2006), Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008), Trainwreck (2015), Ocean's 8 (2018), and the television series Billions.^{[23][24][25][26][27]}

Anthony Bourdain filmed an interview with publicist Danny Fields at Veselka that appeared in the final episode of Parts Unknown on CNN in 2018.^[28]

Music

Veselka is referenced in the songs "Veselka Diner" by Doctor Rokit^[29] and "Veselka" by Greta Gertler, which was featured as National Public Radio's "Song of the Day" on January 24, 2008.^[30]

Books

Veselka appears in City of Fallen Angels, the fourth novel in Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series.

Documentary

The restaurant appears in Chantal Akerman's 1976 documentary News From Home.^[31][32]

In 2024, a documentary titled Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The film was directed by Michael Fiore and narrated by David Duchovny.^{[33][34][35][36][37][38][39]}

In operation

Veselka Grand Central opened October 2023 in the Grand Central Terminal Dining Concourse.^[46][47]

Closed

Little Veselka, located in First Park, was a concession of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. It was operated by Veselka and offered a limited menu – primarily sandwiches named for famous Ukrainians and select others, including; Andy Warhol (the Andy Warhola), Leon Trotsky, Rinat Akhmetov, Milla Jovovich and Leonid Stadnik.^[48] It closed in 2011.

Veselka Bowery, located on East 1st Street and Bowery, was announced in February 2010^[6][49] and opened in November 2011.^[50][51] Veselka Bowery offered a more "upscale" version of the Ukrainian comfort food that remains a staple of the menu of the original Veselka.^[52] It also offered an expansive drink menu and a selection of dozens of Eastern European vodkas.^[52][53] Veselka Bowery closed in April 2013.^[54]

Veselka Essex, opened in 2019, was located in The Market Line, which hosts a group of grocery stores and restaurants in commercial and residential development on the Lower East Side named Essex Crossing.^[55][56] In January 2024, the Essex Crossing location closed.^[57]