Anybody who’s been to brunch at the beloved East Village institution Veselka knows how long the wait can be for an afternoon table to nosh on some of New York’s finest varenyky and borscht.
But, in the days after Russia invaded Ukraine, the line on Ninth Street that curved onto Second Avenue felt different. It was bigger and stayed later. Nobody cared that it was freezing outside.
On Feb. 27, 2022, at 7 p.m., three days after the war began, I watched as about 100 diners stood, waiting to get into the eatery, as TV news crews interviewed patrons.
It was a remarkable scene. People donated money, clothes and diapers. The blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag were everywhere. And the street was alive with the intense solidarity that courses powerfully through New York City’s veins.
“People have been lining up since early in the morning — 9, 9:30 a.m. — for indoor and outdoor dining,” Veselka owner Jason Birchard says in the new documentary “Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World,” showing at Village East through March 7.
“It’s just been a constant flow of people coming to sympathize.”
While “Rainbow on the Corner” is first and foremost a deeply affecting story of a family-run restaurant, at the film’s best it also serves as a vital reminder — and a wake-up call for some — of what’s at stake in Ukraine’s ongoing war against Russia and of New York’s strong connection to a valiant fight for survival 4,700 miles away.
For 70 years, Veselka (Ukrainian for “Rainbow”) has served hearty Eastern European fare to loyal customers in the Manhattan neighborhood also known as Little Ukraine that some 25,000 Ukrainian-Americans still call home.
Opened in 1954 by Wolodymyr Darmochwal as a corner store and newsstand, it eventually expanded into full-blown food service.
In the mid-70s, when NYC was alight with crime and budget cutbacks, the place was almost doomed by business-killing construction right outside on the ultimately uncompleted downtown portion of the Second Ave. Subway.
“When you stepped out the door, you took one step and you were in Second Ave.,” Tom Birchard, Darmochwal’s son-in-law and Jason’s dad, says in the doc.
After Tom took the reins, he turned Veselka into a dedicated restaurant that eventually evolved into an around-the-clock operation beloved by NYU students and hungry barflies after last call.
Over the decades, Veselka has weathered the seismic changes to the East Village, the Sept. 11 attacks and Hurricane Sandy. Unlike many other diners, it successfully navigated the COVID pandemic lockdowns — even if 24-hour service was kaput — when Tom retired and Jason took over.
The first third of the documentary, directed by Michael Fiore, is a thorough and fun retelling of the spot’s storied past. NYC nostalgists will love it.
But the movie surges with urgency when the war begins and Veselka instantly turns into a de facto second Ukrainian embassy. There’s still stuffed cabbage and split pea soup on the tables, only it’s being enjoyed by Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul as they chat with Tom and Jason about how New York can help displaced Ukrainians.
The film, which is narrated by David Duchovny, makes the case that this difficult moment has been Veselka’s finest hour — not only as a business, but as an emotional home for local Ukrainians, a champion of the cause and a formidable money-raiser. Jason’s charitable donations of borscht sales have totaled more than $600,000.
Most gut-wrenching, though, are the candid talks with its devoted workers, who I guarantee you’ll recognize if you’ve been there, that are paralyzed with worry about family and friends back in Ukraine.
One employee, Dima, says nine of his friends have been killed in the early days of the war. As the months tick on, he is helped by Jason to bring several of his relatives to New York, and they end up working in the tiny kitchen at Veselka.
The manager — and the real soul of the movie — is quiet, cat-loving Vitalii, who, at first, is unable to communicate with his imperiled mom, dad and grandmother at home.
“How is your family?,” Jason asks.
“Hard to say, because I cannot call them,” Vitalii says. “There is no cell phone service and no internet access.”
An eventual reunion is heartwarming, but also complicated. While mom Lyudmila is overjoyed to see her son, she’s out of sorts in a new country where she doesn’t know anybody else or speak the language. And her husband opted not to make the trip.
He proudly tells Vitalii, “As long as Ukraine stays on the map of Europe as an independent country, I’m not going to move.”
Here in New York for a while, Lyudmila also goes to work making dumplings in the Veselka kitchen. A place where everybody can understand her.
How inspiring it is to see the enormous difference a bowl of borscht and a cup of coffee are making right now.
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