Babushka Pierogi
Sarah Dworak, Chef-Owner of Babushka Pierogi
Babushka Pierogi started as a fun concept between friends and blossomed into the beginnings of a successful business that brought Eastern European cuisine to Findlay Market and beyond. Sarah Dworak started Babushka in 2012 with her Polish friend, Iwona. They combined their grandmothers’ filling and dough recipes to make pierogi that they brought to parties and served to their friends. Soon after, they’d land an opportunity to sell their pierogi at Findlay Market and officially launch their Babushka Pierogi.
“I knew [Bryan] Madison at the time, and he loved the idea,” Sarah says. “He offered me a space outside of his store to sell pierogi on Thanksgiving weekend of 2012, and that essentially started the business.”
The first few years, Sarah and Iwona sustained the business on mobile events and a growing foundation of wholesale accounts with local businesses like Madison’s and Longfellow, which still, after nine years, features Babushka Pierogi on the menu.
After a few years of hand-making pierogi overnight and selling them at markets and events throughout the day, Sarah and her business partner hit a crossroads. “Iwona stepped away from the business because she had another job, but in 2014 I turned this into my full-time job,” Sarah says. Then, in 2016, Findlay Kitchen opened its doors to the restaurant community for the very first time, which gave Sarah an avenue to begin earnestly expanding her business.
Babushka Pierogi inside the historic Findlay Market House
“We had a pod in Findlay Kitchen for four years, and we were able to increase our production significantly,” she says. “To have a space dedicated to our needs anytime, day or night—it really just made our lives so much easier, and we were able to grow so much faster. It was huge.”
All the while, Sarah was working toward her dream to be open full time inside the historic Findlay Market House. She had connected with Merchants like Gramma Debbie’s Kitchen and Bouchard’s Pasta to set up and sell her pierogi at their stands. Then in 2023, her dream came true and she opened Babushka Pierogi’s first physical location on the east side of the Market House. Babushka’s success gave way to even more opportunities down the road like Sudova, Sarah’s newest restaurant concept that opened in the summer of 2024 on Court Street.
And most recently, Sarah was nominated as a semifinalist in the Best Chef: Great Lakes category of the James Beard Awards. In the list of 20 nominations for the category, Sarah is just one of three women listed as semifinalists. “How is that possible?” Sarah says. “It’s a huge responsibility, and I do not take that nomination lightly.”
Owning several restaurants actually wasn’t the plan, Sarah says. “When you start small, you really only know small. Now, I’m no longer moving from a space of fear, but from, ‘I can do this,’ Sarah says. “The decisions to expand are based on the desire to create something bigger, and with all of that experience behind you, it's just a much more stable foundation to start from.”
While Cincinnati is known for its deep German roots, there’s not a lot of representation for other Eastern European cuisines. In creating Babushka and Sudova, Sarah brings these cuisines to the forefront of her businesses, showing Cincinnati what it’s like to sit at the dinner table of her beloved Ukrainian grandparents. “I feel extremely proud, but also a huge responsibility to do right by this food and how it's represented,” she says.
Pierogi are, of course, a staple of Polish and Ukrainian cuisine, but they’re also commonly enjoyed during holidays. Many of Sarah’s guests choose Babushka to source their holiday pierogi, and being part of so many people’s special celebrations is a sort of fuel for Sarah.
“That's the reason why I continue to do this. It's because I don't want this to end. And I mean, one day I would definitely like to retire,” she says, laughing. “But the people that come because they know the food, they're such important customers to me.”
Published March 2026