Since 1954 ,Veselka was serving up pirogi and apple sauce and sour cream and blintzes and stuffed cabbage with movie set lighting and a diner decor at 144 second ave but now there is another option at 9 east 1st st between 2av and Bowery. And in addition to softer lighting there is a good wine list and great salmon cakes and the same great latkes/potato pancakes(kartoofel flaks?). Jack Hitts one person show at Joe's Pub was evocative of the late great Spalding Gray but with a special blend of brain science meets Jean Sheppard ...dark humor meets humanism...The Moth meets Mark Twain. Hitt
produced for Fred Friendly, wrote for Harper's and the NYT, and taught journalism at Yale (mainly how to sell your story). At the Public Theatre he sold stories from his child-eye and ever growing heart
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steeped in a broth of rugged academic/politics. And so that is why I needed some Gruner and comfort food and why Veselka made me happy. One question though...who is the guy pictured on the wall in a leather sleeved collegiate jacket at Veselka. Is it as one waiter said a Ukrainian singer or a recently released convict as another waiter suggested? Silly to wonder a day later but that Jack Hitt got me thinking about everything...just as he did when he worked so brilliantly with Fred Friendly on the Ethics in America series for PBS or when he edited a dictionary called Words That Ought To Be.
