Arlington restaurant removes ‘Russian’ from sign after threats, shows Ukraine solidarity
A longtime Arlington restaurant has altered its name in solidarity with Ukraine after Russia’s invasion last week.
A Taste of Europe, which has been at 1901 Pioneer Parkway in Arlington since 2002, has promoted the restaurant and grocery with “Russian Gifts” on its sign.
But since Russia’s invasion, owner Val Tsalko said threatening phone calls and emails forced him to black out the word “Russian” on his sign, according to social media posts. He’s also hung a Ukrainian flag in a front window and added “We stand with Ukraine” on the homepage of the restaurant’s website.
The restaurant specializes in Eastern European dishes. Tsalko told WFAA-TV that his family used “Russian” because it was an easily identifiable geographic region.
“I was born in Minsk, Belarus,” Tsalko told WFAA. “Not many people know where that is.”
Tsalko’s grandfather opened the original restaurant at the Galleria in Dallas after immigrating from Belarus, which is on Ukraine’s northern border and has been used by Russia during the invasion.
Not only did Tsalko put duct tape over “Russian” in his sign, and display a blue and yellow Ukrainian flag in his window, he added a “Stop War” sign in his dining room.
Tsalko was already planning to remove references to Russia in his signage and menu to make them more region-specific, but the war expedited the changes, he told WFAA.
The menu has been updated to give items more region-specific designations.
According to the Taste of Europe website, “Our menu spotlights anything from Classic Borscht and Hungarian goulash, Beef stroganoff and German schnitzel to Ukrainian pirogues and Chicken Kiev and much more.”
“It’s a Ukrainian borscht instead of it just staying borscht and we put Hungarian in front of our goulash,” Tsalko told WFAA. “The plan was to remove all that anyway and start being really specific about the items, but [the invasion] kind of escalated all that. So, we went real quick. The second it happened everything was out.”
They’re still receiving threats but they are fewer since the changes were made, Tsalko said.
“We are on the side of Ukraine. We’re fully supporting them, and we hope the war stops really soon,” he said WFAA. “Everyone’s devastated, but we’re doing what we can here in Texas to help them out. I mean it might not be a whole lot, but we’re trying our best.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2022 at 3:52 PM.
