Open 7 PM 'til 4 AM - 7 Days a Week

When Denis Woychuk was growing up in Flatbush in the late 1950s and ’60s, he often took trips into the city with his father. His dad immigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine in 1929, and in the Ukrainian Village he didn’t even have to try to speak English. Often, they would stop by 85 E. 4th Street, which was then the Ukrainian Labor Home, a kind of socialist social club. The Ukrainian Daily News was headquartered there, Soviet propaganda films were shown, and plenty of vodka was poured at the bar. Woychuk inadvertently had his own first drink here at just 5 years old, after a bartender decided it would be funny to serve him. In 1993, after he was well past the legal drinking age, Woychuk bought the building and opened the Kraine Gallery (that’s short for Ukraine) and KGB Bar.

>> read more

85 E 4^th Street houses the Kraine Theater, the famous KGB Bar, and, its latest edition, the Red Room. Though there is much discussion about its individual parts, the building as a whole has a long and rich history, much of which is evident. The owner, Denis Woychuk, is one of the wittiest, warmest people I’ve ever met, and is quick to open up.

As we sit and chat in the Red Room, he’s quick to relate everything that’s happened in 85 East 4^th: “In 1838 this building was built. Think about this. The Civil War is almost 30 years in the future. Lincoln’s wearing short pants and studying his grammar, he’s… I really don’t know what Lincoln was doing.” >> read more