— today
A kitchen on wheels, every weekend.
You'll find Varenyky at brewery taprooms, farmers markets, and private events across the city. The truck smells like browned butter before you see it — follow your nose and the sound of the flattop.
We serve out of a 1978 Airstream we rebuilt by hand. The menu fits on one page. The line moves fast. The food is the point.
"Best thing we've added to taproom Saturdays."
— Riverside Brewing Co.
— the recipes
Nothing was ever written down.
Every recipe was passed hand to hand, mouth to ear, across a kitchen table in Poltava. We wrote them down so we wouldn't forget. The measurements are still approximate.
Varenyky Dough
- •2 cups flour
- •1 egg
- •½ cup warm water
- •pinch of salt
✎ Mix until it stops being sticky — about 8 minutes, maybe 10. Baba said you can feel when it's ready.
Borscht Base
- •3 large beets, roasted
- •beef bones, 4 hrs
- •cabbage, shredded
- •smetana to finish
✎ The beet must be roasted, not boiled. This is not negotiable. Everything else is flexible.
Garlic Butter
- •1 head garlic, crushed
- •good butter
- •fresh dill
- •sea salt
✎ For the pampushka. More garlic than you think. Then a little more.
Poltava, 1964
— where it started
One suitcase, three recipes, and a cast iron pan.
Halyna Kovalenko left Poltava in 1979 with a single suitcase. Inside: two embroidered blouses, a cast iron pan, and her mother's recipe for varenyky — not written down, just memorized the way you memorize a prayer.
She cooked for forty years in a small kitchen in Cleveland. Her granddaughter, Darya, grew up at that table — learning dough by feel, borscht by color, and hospitality by watching a woman feed anyone who came through the door.
In 2018, Darya put those recipes in a truck. The pan came with her.
Halyna Kovalenko, 1941–2017
