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Speaker 1: How many of us have had our night's end over pierogies at Veselka? For 70 years, the Ukrainian restaurant has been a beloved East Village institution on the corner of 2nd and 9th. It's been a symbol of the influence of Ukrainian immigrants in a neighborhood that used to be known as Little Ukraine. In the past few years, what Veselka represents to its community has changed ever since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

There's a new documentary that follows the owners and workers of the restaurant as the conflict unfolds. The film is called Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World. WNYC's David Furst was in the host chair, speaking to director Michael Fiore and Veselka owner Tom Birchard along with his son Jason.

We also took your calls during this conversation to hear your personal Veselka stories. A reminder for listeners right now, this is an encore broadcast, so we can't actually take your calls live right now. David started by asking Michael as a director what the impetus was for him to make this documentary.

Michael Fiore: I went to neighboring NYU film school and any student or alum knows that Veselka is there to be your second kitchen or your home away from home. I started going there about 20 years ago, and I had known the back-of-the-menu story of the three generations. I was introduced to Tom and Jason through a mutual colleague. I started to promote the idea of a father-son-theme story. This was November of 2021, and the war wasn't even a glimmer in anybody's eye at that point.

The theme was a father-son story, multigenerational, as well as they were talking about doing a renovation of the restaurant. Tom had transitioned and retired. It was going to cover this changing of the guard as well, which the movie as it's completed does cover that. Then the war happened. In February, we hadn't started the movie yet, and I had reached out to Tom and Jason.

Again, said, "If we're going to tell your story, I think now's the time." I don't want to exploit your staff for what's going on with the war back home for these Ukrainians, but because your father-in-law and grandfather started the establishment in 1954 as a result of wanting to give displaced Ukrainians after World War II a home, I felt the parallels were too strong to deny them. We were all in agreement that now was the time to tell the story.

David Furst: Obviously, the story changed radically from where you started. The documentary, in large part, tells the story about the role that Veselka has played during the last two years. It is now almost exactly two years later since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Jason, what do you do? What is the best way to help? How do you use your business, whatever influence you have in the community?

Jason Birchard: In the beginning, I felt very connected being grandson of my grandfather who, unfortunately, escaped Russian oppression and arrived here in the late 1940s. I believe his spirit lives in me. When this conflict started, with the outpouring of love and the customers were coming from near and far to not only enjoy our food, but I wanted to donate and contribute. I had partnered with a local nonprofit that I've been partnered with for more than 10 years called Razom for Ukraine. They're a nonprofit that are helping on the humanitarian level.

I decided that shortly after the conflict started that one of our signature dish is borscht. I decided that all the sales of our borscht would go to humanitarian relief efforts. We call it borscht diplomacy, as they say. Shortly after that borscht, there was a fight between where borscht originated, whether it was in Ukraine or Russia and it was designated as an UNESCO heritage dish of Ukraine.

It was easier at that time now that we're going into, unfortunately, two years into this conflict to keep the spotlight. I think it's very poignant that the movies come out now right before the two anniversary. It's a political hot potato in Washington, but it's still a story about how we all can come together, especially as a community, to do our best to keep our fellow Ukrainians alive.

David Furst: Thank you for sharing. A text right now Veselka has the best beet salad in New York City. I don't think there's any argument in the room here. Let's hear from Laurie calling from Manasquan, New Jersey. Good afternoon.

Laurie: Hi. Right after college, I moved into the West Village and was always hanging out in the East Village. The place was famous, Veselka. It has the best bread and the best lentil soup. I have a ton of memories. As soon as I heard your name pop up while I was listening, I immediately dialed in. The place holds a special memory for me. You could go there. Everybody in the community hung out, funky people, well-known people. I just wanted to say that it was a good, good part right after college of my life.

David Furst: That's good to hear.

Jason Birchard: Thank you for sharing. I consider ourselves a small, humble restaurant in the East Village. My father and working there as a child, obviously, built this business and gave me the opportunity to continue the family legacy. I really always, think small-minded that we're just a small little corner restaurant in the East Village. Due to a variety of different scenarios that have played out at Tragedy's 9/11 and Superstorm Sandy that people have come and continue to support.

I think that's part of our Ukrainian heritage. We're very strong, resilient, perseverant people. I've learned a lot from my father and we're just happy to celebrate our 70th anniversary this year. It's people like you that have fond memories and keep coming.

David Furst: Tom, I want to get into the history of your business. Veselka, which means rainbow in Ukrainian was founded by your in-laws Volodymyr and Olha in 1954. It wasn't this big restaurant that we see now.

Tom Birchard: No, it was more. It was a typical Lower East Side candy store.

David Furst: Can you tell us about that and about your in-laws?

Tom Birchard: Yes. My in-laws immigrated from a displaced persons camp in Germany in 1950. Then my father-in-law bought this funky little newsstand on the corner of 2nd Avenue in 9th Street in 1954. In their first years, early years, they were professional people from Ukraine, but when they came here, they had to do very menial work. My mother-in-law was an orderly in a hospital and my father-in-law swept the floor of the Ballentine Brewery in Newark.

They certainly had aspirations of bettering their life. As I said, my father-in-law bought this funky little newsstand in 1954 and it became a hub for Ukrainians. There was a large Ukrainian community that had immigrated with them in 1950 from Germany.

David Furst: How did you get pulled into the family business?

Tom Birchard: I met their daughter at a fraternity party at Rutgers in 1966 and fell in love. We were young. She brought me to the East Village, which was a revelation to me. I grew up in a very homogenized suburb in New Jersey. Coming to the East Village and experiencing the vibrancy and the diversity and the energy was really infectious. I took to it right away. My last two and a half years of college, I worked at Veselka on weekends and my father-in-law tragically passed away in 1974.

David Furst: '74.

Tom Birchard: Yes, 74. I took over and struggled with it, but eventually, figured out what it would take to make the business succeed. Luckily, we're still here.

David Furst: Luckily, indeed. Let's hear from Risa in Huntington. Good afternoon. Welcome to All Of It.

Risa: Hi, how are you?

David Furst: Great.

Risa: During the '80s, I lived on 7th Street, which was a beautiful Ukrainian church on 7th Street and was definitely a railroad flat that I lived in. The landlord at the time, he too, was Ukrainian and he had a bunch of songbirds in the basement. It was a hub of Eastern European activity in the area. There were so many places like Veselka which is so great for somebody like myself who was young, just starting to work. I worked at Seward Park High School, which is not far from there. I was on a very limited budget. As a result of Veselka- places like Stanley's, places like Christina. I could go on and on. There were so many of them. They allowed great cheap fare, hearty cheap Eastern European fare, and I'll always remember that. Now, Veselka if I remember correctly, had a really cool mural painted on the outside. I believe the owner's wife was a veterinarian. I know I bought my cat.

David Furst: That's my wife, Sally.

Risa: Oh, yes. I just so remember that. It's one of many cats that I have. Anyhow, that was just unusual that she was almost as famous as Veselka.

Jason Birchard: Actually, I realized early on that there was no veterinarian in the entire East Village, and my wife at the time was working uptown. We put our nickels and dimes together and managed to open a veterinary practice for her which became very, very popular. She became the vet to the East Village. Now I think there's 14 or 15 veterinary offices, but she was the first.

David Furst: Reggie calling from Bed-Stuy. Welcome to All Of It.

Reggie: Hi. I'm a jazz musician and a rock musician. After 2:00 AM, after a gig, I guess for the last 40 years, my first time was when I played CVs in the '80s. Veselka has the best food. The buckwheat pancakes, and that large chef salad. At 2:00 AM in the morning, they have the best food. It's also filling and it's a hangout for musicians after the last set down there in the East Village.

David Furst: Jason, can you speak to that? You have a lot of experience with that.

Jason Birchard: Out of college, that was one of my initiatives or things that Tom and my father, and I decided that we know that there were a lot of people out late at night. We originally did it on weekends to a great fanfare, or shortly after that, we did it seven days a week. Unfortunately, we did that right up until the pandemic, and we haven't gotten back to that, but actually just coming on before air, I was conversing with my father and telling him that we're actively looking to open up again late night very soon before summer. Reggie, please, come back. Right now, we close at midnight, but we're here for you.

David Furst: Just, some final thoughts, Michael. It's almost two years now since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. What do you hope this movie does for viewers?

Michael Fiore: I tell people all the time when they ask, this isn't a war movie. This is an antidote to war story. To come in, to visit a 70-year story of love and compassion, and how not only Tom and Jason have come together in good times and bad, but how the community has. I think given the sentiment that is happening right now in our US government about funding Ukraine and even the thinking on the street about should we or should we not be giving to Ukraine, the hope would be that while the movie is not political or a war movie, that it invites people to show a little extra compassion, to look to themselves as the source of change.

There's a moment in the movie, I don't want to give too much away, where Mayor Adams shows up, and he's very torn between multiple messages for that luncheon. It becomes a situation by the end where it becomes pretty clear that Jason and others shouldn't really look to their local leaders for every answer, that Jason can be the the agent of change. I think we all can be the agent of change, and I hope that the movie plants that seed in everyone's head.

David Furst: We just have a couple of moments left. Tom or Jason, a final thought? Tom?

Tom Birchard: I can't help thinking over and over, when I first came to Veselka, I'd learned the story of my in-laws who have had an incredibly hard time after the Second World War, fleeing their country, giving up everything they had established and loved in coming to the US and starting over again. Then watching our employees who've helped build this incredible business worried about their families back home, it's just heartbreaking and we're just doing everything we can to support them and try to make people aware of the human impact of this horrible war.

Speaker 1: That was All Of It, guest host David Furst, speaking with the Veselka owners Tom and Jason Birchard as well as director Michael Fiore. They were talking about a new documentary on Veselka, the beloved East Village Ukrainian restaurant. The film is called Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World.

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