I too have fond memories of the Kiev… In 1988 I lived on 2nd and 7th while attending art school and worked nights and weekends as a young waitress at Paul’s Lounge a few blocks away… Joey Ramone lived in the building above and I was the waitress that took take out dinners up to him several nights a week…when he wasn’t on the road performing, lol.
Thanks for a walk down memory lane! I moved two years ago after 30 years in NYC, 25 of them in the same apt at 1st ave & 7th st. My last meal included pierogis and potato pancakes from B&H - and their carrot cake!
I think the restaurant you referred to at 1st & 6th was Theresa’s. Loved their soup! I lived right next to the GI Polish Deli - they’re gone also.
I loved Kiev also! Used to see Joey Ramone come out of Veselka in the morning. I also loved the Ukrainian restaurant- it’s the only place I found that called the stuffed cabbage hulapchi like my grandmother did and pierogis were petalhee (don’t know how to spell them..).
The East Village became so gentrified and lost its creative edge that I’m now much happier in the high desert of New Mexico. Thanks again for sharing your memories!!
In Cincinnati there was a coffee shop called Kaldi's that was in a terrible part of town at the time. It was always open and it had a three piece jazz band playing quite often. Books everywhere, terrible coffee and sandwiches. Drunks passed out at the bar. I went there when I was 17-19. It could never exist now. Everything is so pretty that it's almost sad.
This twisted my heart 180 empathetic degrees. It makes me ache for a time machine to revisit these grimy food emporiums (emporia?) of the heart. Never went to Leshko's, alas, but I still miss a place called Cafe Gigi, a dark den of delicious old upholstered furniture, decadent pizza & a chill, indifferent waitress. It was pure escapism without the faux-cheery script. Sic transit Gloria, Gigi & Leshko's.
I Remember Leshko's
I love nostalgia in all forms. your words, your photos, all take me to a past I never had, but now feel I have lost. wonderful!
I too have fond memories of the Kiev… In 1988 I lived on 2nd and 7th while attending art school and worked nights and weekends as a young waitress at Paul’s Lounge a few blocks away… Joey Ramone lived in the building above and I was the waitress that took take out dinners up to him several nights a week…when he wasn’t on the road performing, lol.
Thanks for a walk down memory lane! I moved two years ago after 30 years in NYC, 25 of them in the same apt at 1st ave & 7th st. My last meal included pierogis and potato pancakes from B&H - and their carrot cake!
I think the restaurant you referred to at 1st & 6th was Theresa’s. Loved their soup! I lived right next to the GI Polish Deli - they’re gone also.
I loved Kiev also! Used to see Joey Ramone come out of Veselka in the morning. I also loved the Ukrainian restaurant- it’s the only place I found that called the stuffed cabbage hulapchi like my grandmother did and pierogis were petalhee (don’t know how to spell them..).
The East Village became so gentrified and lost its creative edge that I’m now much happier in the high desert of New Mexico. Thanks again for sharing your memories!!
In Cincinnati there was a coffee shop called Kaldi's that was in a terrible part of town at the time. It was always open and it had a three piece jazz band playing quite often. Books everywhere, terrible coffee and sandwiches. Drunks passed out at the bar. I went there when I was 17-19. It could never exist now. Everything is so pretty that it's almost sad.
This twisted my heart 180 empathetic degrees. It makes me ache for a time machine to revisit these grimy food emporiums (emporia?) of the heart. Never went to Leshko's, alas, but I still miss a place called Cafe Gigi, a dark den of delicious old upholstered furniture, decadent pizza & a chill, indifferent waitress. It was pure escapism without the faux-cheery script. Sic transit Gloria, Gigi & Leshko's.
The Bell I knew well