Food in East Village

A kosher dairy counter that opened on Second Avenue in 1938, when this block was the Yiddish theater district. Soup comes with challah baked on the premises. There are about a dozen stools along the counter and no table service.

Tue to Sun, 7am to 11pm. Closed Monday

Adela Vargas opened this counter on Avenue C in 1976 and her family runs it now. Rotisserie chicken with rice is the order and very little on the menu goes past twenty dollars. Cash only, and you bring your own drink.

Daily, 11am to 9pm

Frank Prisinzano opened this wood-oven pizzeria in January 2002, after Frank on Second Avenue, and later took the space next door. There is a garden out back. East Village Radio broadcasts from a street-level studio at number 21, the same owner and the next door along, with the DJs visible through the window.

Sun to Thu, 11am to 2am. Fri and Sat, 11am to 4am

Lucien Bahaj came from Morocco and opened this French bistro on First Avenue in 1998. He died in 2019 and his son Zac runs it now. The menu holds escargots de bourgogne, moules mariniere and a Marseille-style bouillabaisse. Jonas Mekas and Dash Snow were among the regulars over the years.

Daily to midnight, and to 1am Thursday to Saturday. Listings post a 10am open and the operator's own page still says noon, so treat the morning as unconfirmed

A counter on East 1st Street that has fed cab drivers for more than twenty years, ladling a few vegetarian dishes over rice for a handful of dollars. You point at what you want. It shut for several weeks over a plumbing problem and reopened in January 2026.

Daily, 8am to 10pm

Ray Alvarez has run this storefront across from Tompkins Square Park since 1974. It is a few feet deep, the egg creams and the beignets are what to order, and it does not close.

Open 24 hours

Inside the Ukrainian National Home on Second Avenue, in a building that traces back to around 1830 and has been a private house, a YMCA and the Stuyvesant Casino along the way. Pierogi, stuffed cabbage, borscht and roast pork, run largely unchanged for more than fifty years.

Monday to Friday 4pm to 10pm, Saturday and Sunday noon to 10pm

A Ukrainian counter and restaurant on Second Avenue since 1954, run by the third generation of the same family. Pierogi and borscht go out all day and the kitchen runs through the night again on weekends. It brought back round-the-clock Friday and Saturday service in April 2026.

Mon to Thu, 9am to midnight. Sun, 8am to 11pm. Around the clock on Friday and Saturday