Veselka is the only Eastern European joint left that I frequent down there. They're Ukrainian. They've been on 2nd Avenue and 9th Street for like sixty years. Our Village property is on West 8th, just off MacDougal. But I walk crosstown just to eat breakfast there all the time
It's run down, and it's more of a diner than a restaurant. But the food is great, and it's just about the last remaining link to the old Lower East Side. And everyone here knows how I feel about the new Manhattan .
I'm half Ukrainian and that side of my family originally lived in the Lower East Side when they came over during WWII.
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