The space where The Pierogie Place was previously located. Monday, September 15, 2025. Glassboro, NJ. (Hayden Fugee / Copy Editor)
In 2022, The Pierogie Place opened up on Rowan Boulevard, serving Ukrainian-style pierogis to students and Glassboro residents. However, after three years, Elizabeth Kulchykyi and her husband, Bohdan, have decided their business in Glassboro was finished.
The Pierogie Place is a family-owned establishment that currently has four other walk-in locations at The Shops at Liberty Place, located in Center City, Lincoln Financial Field, and two on the Wildwood Boardwalk.
Elizabeth and Bohdan began their pierogi journey back in 2020. After living outside the country in Malta and coming back for a family birthday, the couple found themselves stuck in America, unable to go back following the COVID-19 quarantine. In that time, they were staying at their family home and would frequent the boardwalk daily for exercise. During one of these daily walks, they spotted a place to rent, which led to their first restaurant.
Both of Ukrainian descent, Elizabeth and Bohdan were raised on pierogis and had long talked about opening a shop beforehand. Eventually, they began to expand, with their Rowan Boulevard location becoming their first to have a dine-in option.
“Rowan was our biggest location. It was over 2000 feet, and it was our first sit-down location,” said co-owner Elizabeth Kulchykyi. “Basically, the vision was that students would come in, plop down with their laptops and their books and grab some pierogis and possibly, you know, a cappuccino or whatever.”
Over the course of their time in Glassboro, Kulchykyi realized that having a larger, more open space wasn’t what she and her husband had expected, as most customers would order takeout and wouldn’t stay in the store very long.
“I would say the majority, the absolute majority of our customers were not dining customers,” said Kulchykyi. “The space was just too big, like we just overbuilt that space for our business, for our product basically.”
They also struggled with foot traffic issues, as they found sales tied to a seasonal schedule. Students were their main source of customers, so whenever school was on a break, sales would decline.
“We are super sad about leaving. And we just had amazing customers, like honestly, and they were just great from the students to faculty.” Kulchykyi said. “Rowan Boulevard, great other business owners, fantastic. It is a very supportive community.”
As of now, Kulchykyi and her family have plans for the future of The Pierogie Place, as they still have several open locations in New Jersey, and continue to post updates with their company. With the possibility of other future locations in mind, the Kulchykyi family is eager to continue sharing their pierogis.
“There’s a couple different areas of expansion that we’re excited about and continuing with our walk-up models,” Kulchykyi said.
Derean Council, a freshman psychology major, was a former customer of The Pierogie Place and had no idea of the closure.
“I liked their stuff, it was really good my first time,” Council said. “I didn’t know they shut down, that’s crazy.”
The Pierogie Place isn’t the only Rowan Boulevard restaurant that’s closed up shop. Waffa Theory!, a waffle-based restaurant that opened up in Glassboro back in November 2023, has also shut its doors. Signs were posted on the windows of the restaurant that vaguely explained Waffa Theory! would be closing down indefinitely due to “unforeseen circumstances”, while also thanking customers and the community for their support. No other information about the closure of Waffa Theory! is known at this time.
“I was really not expecting [the closing], especially Waffa Theory! because Waffa Theory! was not bad,” said Infinity Pritchett, a law and justice senior at Rowan.
Though one door closes, in this case two of them, another one opens. The Pierogie Place’s former location on Rowan Boulevard will soon become the home of a new location for Greens and Grain, a vegan restaurant that specializes in plant-based food.
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