The Eastern European dumplings are finally getting their time in the spotlight, thanks to Brooklyn native Helena Fabiankovic and this restaurant’s namesake: grandma.
“Baba’s Pierogies has been an idea for a very, very long time. It actually started with my sister and I when we were kids watching my grandma make pierogies every Friday and she still does. We’re a Catholic family so you don’t eat meat on Fridays and so my grandmother would make pierogies as dinner for everybody. The best part of eating them is watching them be made," says Helena Fabiankovic of Baba's Pierogies.
It is not all potatoes and sauerkraut. Chef Robert Gardiner has merged baba’s decades-old recipe with some unexpected fillings — think spinach feta or even mac and cheese.
“The first experiment was bacon cheddar potato. The chocolate one, that was a hard one to figure out. Those are the flavors we have that we’re proud of. It’s the type of food you can experiment with and it gives you a lot of freedom,” says chef Robert Gardiner.
The restaurant’s look also fuses the new with the old, showcasing black and white family photos alongside more modern accents.
“The details on the walls are supposed to kind of pay homage to the traditional designs of Slovakia," Fabiankovic says.
‘It’s also the story of your family coming to America and grandma cooking," Gardiner says.
“We also happen to have this great picture of my mom eating pierogies in the 80s, so how could you not put that up on the wall?”
There is also an open kitchen, so diners can see the pierogies being made from scratch, just like at grandma’s house.
The jalapeno pierogi has a nice little crisp on the outside from the pan-frying. It is a little cheesy and has a little kick from the jalapeno but is not overwhelmingly spicy. The bacon cheddar potato is nice and smoky. I like the flavor of it, but it doesn’t feel too meaty.
It is old world meets new world in one delicious bite.
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