20 May 2024
Pierogis from the Green Room. | The Green Room
The Green Room’s 12-year run serving blinis, pierogi, and kielbasa is coming to an end
The Green Room, a Ukrainian kitchen that started slinging blinis, pierogi, and kielbasa out of the back of a St. Claude Avenue music venue 12 years ago, is closing. Owner Matt Ribachonek announced the restaurant’s end on Instagram on Monday, May 20, saying, “The time has come to move on.”
The Green Room serves borscht, golubtsy, and beef stroganoff in addition to the aforementioned Eastern European specialties, gaining a loyal fanbase over the years as one of the only Slavic kitchens in New Orleans. After operating a pop-up, Ribachonek landed as the late-night food source at Siberia, a punk and metal music club in the Upper Ninth Ward. Ribachonek called it Kukhnya, Russian for “kitchen.” It was popular for pierogi and burgers and made Siberia a food destination separate from its live music lineup for a long run of seven years. In 2019, Ribachonek left Siberia and opened the Green Room at 1300 St. Bernard Avenue, expanding vastly on Kukhnya’s menu.
Affordable and known for having one of the best burgers (the Black and Bleu burger with brown sugar bacon jam) and vegetarian sandwiches (the beet Reuben) in town, the Green Room remained a reliable favorite for late-night food and good drinks in the Seventh Ward. Ribachonek says in his announcement of the Green Room’s run: “I consider it a dream fulfilled. However, things change, people change. The world is a different place from when we started slinging pierogi and burgers from a window in the back of a punk and metal club called Siberia. And I am a different person than the young, energetic, hypercreative man of 12 years ago.”
The Green Room’s last night will be Friday, May 24, from 5 to 9 p.m.