International food and travel writer Sylvie Bigar is the author of Cassoulet Confessions: Food, France, Family and the Stew That Saved My Soul.

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In addition to Travel + Leisure, her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Food & Wine, Forbes.com, Saveur, Bon Appetit, Food Arts, Departures, Town & Country, National Geographic Traveler, Gotham, Hamptons, Time Out New York, Air Canada, Passport Magazine, Narratives, Southampton Press, and New York Resident, for which she has also served as food editor. In French, Sylvie has contributed to Le Figaro Magazine, Histoire Magazine, her hometown newspaper, Le Temps and FrenchMorning.com.

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In 2018, her piece in Departures magazine's Hunting Gooseneck Barnacles on Vancouver Island won the bronze award from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation for Best Culinary Travel. Back in 2016, French Cassoulet, an Obsession boils over for the Washington Post won a gold Travelers' Tales Solas Award for Best Travel Writing in the food and travel category.

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Photo credit: Thomas Schauer

Veselka was founded in 1954 by a Ukrainian immigrant named Wolodymyr Darmochwal, as a five-and-dime that also served soup and sandwiches. In the years that followed, it expanded to a full coffee shop. A young man named Tom Birchard married Darmochwal’s daughter Marta in 1966 and would go on to take over the business. Their son, Jason Birchard, began working there as a teenager, and today, he serves as Veselka’s third-generation proprietor.

As perhaps the most familiar Ukrainian landmark in New York City, Veselka became a gathering place for customers looking to show their support for Ukraine. Lines have stretched around the block, business has skyrocketed, and Veselka has done its best to increase awareness of the ongoing war – including raising approximately $200,000 for humanitarian efforts.

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Photo credit: Veselka