August 31, 2026 · food · new · East Nashville
Veselka, the 70-year-old Ukrainian restaurant from New York’s East Village, opened its first location outside New York City inside Lakeside Lounge at 921 Woodland Street.
That address matters if you’re staying at The Eighteen. Lakeside Lounge is next door to The Basement East at 917 Woodland, both a half-mile walk from 18 McFerrin. If you’ve just seen a show at The Beast and you’re thinking about where to eat after, the answer is now 50 feet away.
Veselka has been serving Ukrainian food in Manhattan’s East Village since 1954. It’s a James Beard Award semifinalist (2023) and an institution—the kind of restaurant where night-shift workers, students, and chefs all end up at the same counter at 3 AM. Open 24 hours in New York.
Nashville is its first expansion, and it’s keeping the menu.
The Nashville menu centers on the classics: pierogi (potato and cheese, plus seasonal), chicken schnitzel, borscht, kielbasa, and latkes. Dipping sauces include a borscht barbecue sauce.
Veselka’s COO Justin Birchard told the press to think of the pierogi like boneless chicken wings—delicious bar food. That’s the pitch, and it fits Lakeside Lounge’s late-night bar crowd.
Kitchen hours vary by source. Lakeside Lounge’s site lists Mon–Thu 3pm–2am, Fri–Sun 11am–2am. Veselka’s locations page lists the Nashville kitchen as Mon–Sun 11am–2am. The bar itself is open 11am–3am daily.
Either way, this is a late kitchen in a neighborhood where kitchens close early. After a 10 PM show at The Beast, you have options.
You’re staying in a building with a full kitchen, which means you’re not locked into restaurant schedules the way hotel guests are. But when you do go out, walkability matters more than anything else. Parking in Five Points is scarce, and rideshares surge after shows.
Veselka is next to The Basement East. The Beast is 0.5 miles from your door. You walk to the show, you walk to Veselka after, you walk home. The car stays in the lot. That’s the value proposition of staying here, and Veselka just made it better.
East Nashville already has Butcher & Bee for Mediterranean small plates, Cafe Roze for all-day marble-bar dining, and Mas Tacos literally on your street. Veselka adds a late-night option with roots older than most of the neighborhood.
It’s bar food, but it’s bar food from a restaurant with 70 years of institutional memory. That’s a different category.
This is how the neighborhood works now. A New York institution picks Nashville for its first expansion, and it picks East Nashville instead of downtown or the Gulch. Lakeside Lounge is a room, not a standalone restaurant, which means Veselka is embedded in the neighborhood’s nightlife rather than competing with it.
It’s the same model as Attaboy next door to The Eighteen—import the original, keep the menu, let the location do the rest.
If you’re planning a trip around a Basement East show, Veselka is now part of the before-and-after logistics. And if you’re staying at The Eighteen, it’s all on foot.