A Diner Started by a Refugee in 1954
Veselka opened in 1954, when Wolodymyr Darmochwal — a Ukrainian who had fled the postwar Soviet occupation of western Ukraine — bought a small candy and newspaper shop on the corner of Second Avenue and Ninth Street in the East Village. The shop sat in the heart of what was then called Little Ukraine, a neighborhood that had absorbed three successive waves of Ukrainian immigrants since the 1880s.
The shop sold candy at first. The food came later. Darmochwal's wife started cooking pierogi, borscht, and stuffed cabbage in the back, and by the late 1950s the cooking had taken over the storefront. The newspaper rack stayed. The candy disappeared.
The diner has been at the same address — 144 Second Avenue, on the southwest corner of Ninth — ever since. It is now run by the founder's grandson, Tom Birchard, and his son Jason. It is open twenty-four hours a day, with brief pauses only for holiday closings. It is, by some measures, the longest-running 24-hour restaurant in Manhattan.
What's on the Menu
The menu is Ukrainian-American diner: pierogi, borscht, stuffed cabbage, kielbasa, latkes, blintzes, plus a full breakfast served all day, plus a couple dozen American diner staples for the late crowd. The kitchen makes 5,000 pierogi a day from scratch — boiled, fried, or both — in flavors that span the obvious (potato-cheddar, sauerkraut-mushroom) to the seasonal (sweet potato in fall, arugula in spring).
The borscht is the headliner. There is a hot version, made with beef stock, dill, and chunks of pickled beet and beef, served with a dollop of sour cream and a slice of dark rye. There is a cold version, served only in summer, that is thinner, brighter, and possibly the single best dish in the city for a 90-degree August day at 3:00 a.m.
The latkes are crisp, thick, served with sour cream and apple sauce. The challah French toast is heavy, sweet, designed for a hangover. The Ukrainian meatballs — half-pork, half-beef, with dill — are the late-night order to know about.
What 2 a.m. Looks Like
The Veselka room at 2:00 a.m. is one of the most reliably populated dining rooms in Manhattan. The crowd is everything: the East Village club kids on their way home, the bartenders and line cooks of half the neighborhood ending their shifts, NYU students breaking up dramatically in the corner booth, occasional theater people in from a late curtain, occasional cab drivers and EMS crews on break.
The waitstaff knows the rhythm. They will not rush you. The table will not be turned. The check comes when you ask for it.
The decor is unfussy diner — formica tables, wooden chairs, a long mural along the south wall painted in the 1980s by a Ukrainian-American artist. The bathrooms are clean. The cash register is by the door, and the cashiers can ring a check from cash, card, or — uncommonly for 2026 — a check still works if you have one.
The Other 24-Hour Diners and Why Veselka Outlasts Them
For most of the 20th century, Manhattan had several dozen 24-hour diners. The Empire on Tenth Avenue. The Kiev around the corner from Veselka. The Cup & Saucer on Canal. The Cosmic on Eighth Avenue. The Stage Door on West 47th. Almost all of them are closed.
The list of remaining 24-hour-or-near-24-hour Manhattan diners is short: the Renaissance-revival favorite Tom's Restaurant up on 112th, the lone holdout Times Square Diner, the all-night counter at Mariella's, and Veselka. The number is shrinking.
Veselka outlasts because it owns its building. The Darmochwal family bought the storefront in the 1960s, after a decade of leasing it, and they have kept the property in the family since. The building is what gives the diner its margin. Every other Manhattan operator, paying 2020s commercial rent, has had to either close or shrink to a seven-day daytime operation.
Ownership is the unromantic but operative answer to why this particular Ukrainian diner is still feeding the East Village at 3:30 in the morning.
Eat Before, Eat After, Eat Late
The Veselka strategy is flexible. You can use it as a 7:00 a.m. breakfast on the way to work — a stack of blintzes, coffee, fifteen dollars. You can use it as the 10:00 p.m. dinner before a movie at the Village East. You can use it as the 3:00 a.m. closer at the end of a long night.
The single best use, after years of testing, is the 1:30 a.m. post-show stop after a Public Theater performance two blocks south. Order a bowl of borscht, a side of three pierogi, a coffee, and a slice of poppyseed cake for dessert. Total bill: about $30. Total time at the table: an hour. Walk home through a quiet East Village.
This is the kind of meal that a city used to make easy, and that in 2026 New York mostly does not.
The Wartime Update
Since February 2022, the menu has carried a small note at the top: a portion of certain dishes' proceeds — the borscht, the varenyky, the holubtsi — goes to Ukrainian humanitarian aid. The Birchard family has been vocal about this, and the diner has hosted fundraisers, art shows, and benefit dinners over the past three years.
This is not an incidental note. The diner is, in the literal sense, the last continuously operating Ukrainian-American institution on this block — Surma the Ukrainian shop, the Ukrainian Restaurant, and the National Home all closed or moved over the past two decades. Veselka has carried the cultural label as a function of being still here.
The food is still the work. The politics are present without being foregrounded. The pierogi still cost what they cost.
How to Order Like a Regular
Three things. Borscht — order it hot in winter, cold in summer, with sour cream and dark rye. Pierogi — get the sampler of four, choose the fillings that day from the chalkboard, ask for them boiled-then-fried for the half-and-half texture. Coffee — ordinary, fine, refilled.
Cash works. Cards work. A check works. A 20% tip on the late-night staff is expected and earned.
Practical notes
- Address: 144 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10003. Corner of Second and Ninth.
- Getting there: L to Third Avenue, three-minute walk. Or 6 to Astor Place.
- Hours: 24 hours a day, every day. Brief holiday closings only.
- Average bill: $20–$30 per person for a full late meal.
- Don't miss: Borscht (hot in winter, cold in summer), the pierogi sampler, the challah French toast for breakfast.
- Pairs well with: A show at the Public Theater, a movie at Village East, a drink at McSorley's before.
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Sources consulted: Veselka · The New York Times · Eater NY · The Village Voice · Time Out New York
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