Vitajte u nás! Baba’s Pierogies comes home

Baba’s Pierogies will soon open its doors at 4413 Sixth Avenue, just south of the park. An offshoot of the Gowanus restaurant of the same name, it will be serving up traditional and innovative takes on the pierogi, a dumpling eaten in Poland, Czechia, and other Eastern European countries. In a neighborhood abundant with Latin American and Chinese restaurants, Baba’s may seem an unlikely addition, but it has deep local roots.

Owners Helena Fabiankovic and Robert Gardiner, a married couple, were both born and raised in Sunset Park. And Fabiankovic’s grandparents, now in their 90s, have lived in the neighborhood since the late 1960s, when they immigrated to Brooklyn from what was then Czechoslovakia to escape increasing repression under Soviet rule.

The Sunset Post sat down with Fabiankovic and Gardiner in their new storefront space, which Gardiner renovated himself. The decor was almost complete, with green tiles and raw wood, and small tables along the front window. On one wall was a larger-than-life portrait of Fabiankovic’s baba (“grandmother” in Slovak) by their artist friend Jan Pecarka. In traditional dress, Baba, whose name is Julia Hlinka, smiled down from the wall under the words, Vitajte u nás! ("welcome").

Hlinka was Fabiankovic and Gardiner’s inspiration for the original Baba’s back in 2013. Gardiner had been working in restaurants and started talking about opening a place. Fabiankovic was a school teacher at the time, but the idea resonated with her. She and her sister had often talked about opening a pierogi place in homage to the feasts their baba made every Friday night when they were growing up.

Before long, Gardiner and Fabiankovic were running a pierogi delivery operation out of their home, and then they started looking for a location for a restaurant. At first they focused their search on Sunset Park, but ultimately they found a spot a few subway stops away in Gowanus. They built out the empty space themselves with help from a friend in construction, and Baba’s Pierogies was born.

From the beginning, the endeavor has been guided by Fabiankovic’s grandparents’ immigrant experience of building a life blending the old and the new. Their story is not only rousing and inspirational, but also fundamental to Baba’s Pierogies’ existence.

Fabiankovic’s grandfather, Mikulas Hlinka, immigrated from their village in Czechoslovakia to Brooklyn in 1967, joining an established Slovak community in Sunset Park and paving the way for Julia and their three kids to follow. When the time came, Fabiankovic said, her grandmother had only a day or two’s notice. As the family story goes, she packed a few things, freed the animals on their farm, and took the kids to Prague where they got one of the last flights out before the Soviet Union closed the borders between the communist East and the capitalist West.

The transition from rural self-sufficiency to an urban, working-class life was a difficult one. Eventually, though, saving money from his work at the front desk of J.P. Morgan, and hers cleaning houses and office buildings, the Hlinkas were able to buy a house on 58th Street where they still live today.

“They were part of a time when you could come here and get your green card,” Fabiankovic said. “I’m not saying it was easy for them, but somehow they were able to own property and have a pension and be okay.”

While memories of the family’s abrupt departure from their homeland still bring tears, the Hlinkas have embraced their life in this country — and watching history unfold, Fabiankovic says, they are grateful they were able to get out when they did.

For Fabiankovic, Baba’s pierogi recipe is an expression of their immigrant experience. When Julia first arrived in Brooklyn, she couldn’t find all the ingredients she used back home, so she made some adaptations. The result was the potato and American cheese-filled pierogi she has been making for decades, “Baba’s Potato” on the restaurant’s menu.

Fabiankovic says people sometimes ask them, “Why American cheese?” Her response is, “That’s my tradition. That’s what I grew up eating. We’re picking up where Baba left off.”

Along with the Baba’s Potato, the menu features classic pierogi varieties like Sauerkraut, and Potato and Cheese (this one made with farmer’s cheese), as well as the more unexpected Mac & Cheese, Jalapeño, and even Crunchy Chocolate. Other offerings include Sloppy Kielbasy, Baba’s Chicken Soup, Potato Pancakes, and vegan salad and pierogi options.

On a busy day at the Gowanus shop, Gardiner says they might sell a thousand pierogies. “We get here in the morning, we start our dough, we start making the pierogies, and we just keep going.”

Gardiner and Fabiankovic are excited to welcome the Sunset Park community to their new place, and are planning opening week discounts to bring people in.

“For me, it feels like a big deal that we’re coming back to where it started for my grandparents,” Fabiankovic said. “We’ve been calling it a homecoming.”