Suzanne Rozdeba Eva Audit.

First Avenue Pierogi & Deli reopened yesterday with a new look and a new owner.

Eva Audit, 31, has taken over the family business from her mother, Wieslawa Kurowycky, 70, who opened the shop in 1985. “I grew up in this store. I worked here in the summers and I know how to make everything,” Ms. Audit, an East Village resident, told The Local. “I don’t have a cooking background, but I do have a big Polish eating background,” she laughed. Her uncle owns Kurowycky Meat Products down the street.

The deli was closed for two months while the owner installed new floors, a small counter that will soon have stools, and a new awning. That last change perturbed some regulars, said Ms. Audit. “We had a really old sign out there, but we didn’t want to throw it out,” she said. “We’re going to refinish it and hang it inside.”

Suzanne Rozdeba

In order to help the shop “adapt to the neighborhood,” she’s also sprucing up the menu by adding vegetarian options and introducing seasonal foods like turkey chili and butternut squash soup. Pierogi with unconventional fillings like bacon-cheddar and potato, truffle, and goat cheese will beat another pierogi expert to the punch: in August, Rob Harding told The Local he was hoping to open a shop that would serve bacon pierogi, among others.

Suzanne Rozdeba

Though Ms. Audit admits business has been tough at times and hopes the new look and menu will attract more customers, she’s in a much better place than most other struggling mom-and-pop shops. “We’re lucky because our family owns the building, and we don’t pay rent,” she said, explaining that her grandfather bought it in the 1960s.

The deli, at 130 First Avenue, will continue to offer Polish classics like potato pierogi, borscht, blintzes, stuffed cabbage, and the huge, deep-fried doughnuts known as paczki. The pierogi menu is below.

Suzanne Rozdeba