Late-Night Dining Is Back. Sort Of.

In the early months of writing this newsletter, I used to receive many a reader email asking where to eat a proper meal after 9 or 10 p.m. The pandemic had destroyed what I would call later-night dining, and what others like to call post-theater dining.

“Post-pandemic New York, a late-dining city by American standards,” the reporter Rachel Sugar wrote in a 2022 article for T Magazine, “has fallen in line with places like Los Angeles or Austin, Texas, in embracing the joys of twilight dinner.” But it seems that four years later, we are finally shaking off the dust and tiptoeing our way back toward being what Eric Adams has surely called the Madrid or Paris or Hong Kong of America.

Veselka’s pierogies arrived in Williamsburg this week.Credit…James Estrin/The New York Times

All the pierogi at Veselka Williamsburg

Maybe you heard the news that Veselka, Ukrainian American jewel of the East Village, will soon return to 24-hour service on weekends, though exactly when that will happen is a bit cloudy. (Jason Birchard, the third-generation owner of the restaurant, said he was waiting for the post-pandemic dining mania to wear off a bit.) What is absolutely certain, however, is that there is now a new Veselka location, with a 48-year lease, in East Williamsburg near the rowdy intersection of Union and Metropolitan Avenues.

“I’ll be in my late 80s when it’s wrapping up,” said Justin Birchard, Veselka’s chief operating officer and Jason’s cousin. “But, you know, we got a good deal.”

Like the mother ship, Veselka Williamsburg will be open fairly late, until 11 p.m., and serving all the pierogi and chicken paprikash you can stomach. I can already imagine many a sloppy night at Rocka Rolla starting in its generously sized booths.

646 Lorimer Street (Jackson Street)