Arts & Entertainment

You’ve Heard About Fat Tuesday, But What About Fat Thursday? Here’s Where Chicago’s Polish Community Gets Their Paczki

Paczki Day is coming up on Tuesday, but ask any Polish native and chances are they’ve already celebrated tłusty czwartek, or Fat Thursday, this week.

Residents across Chicago and the Midwest celebrate paczki — the fried, jam-filled Polish pastries — every year on Fat Tuesday, better known to some as Paczki Day.

But for the Polish community, paczki are eaten on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. It fell on Feb. 12 this year.

“(Thursday) is the biggest day for the Polish people for paczki. That’s very traditional,” said Anna Niziolek, co-owner of the Polish Paczki Cafe on Chicago’s Far Northwest Side.

Every year, the restaurant hits pause on its hot-meal service to make and sell paczki, starting the Wednesday morning before Fat Thursday until the evening of.

Polish Paczki Cafe co-owner Bozena Zakrzewski said during this stretch of the week, she goes 36 hours without getting any shut-eye.

To accommodate the demand, the restaurant staff recruits friends and family to help produce paczki. For example, Zakrzewski’s daughter will help take orders in the front of the house, while her niece helps fill paczki orders in the back.

Zakrzewski said she thinks patrons flock to the Polish Paczki Cafe for Fat Thursday because of the ingredients and method the restaurant uses to make its paczki.

“We are making them from scratch and we have natural ingredients: butter from Poland, the flour which we have is from Canada, and we have marmalade also from Poland,” Zakrzewski said.

The jam used in the center of the paczki is a mix of rose, plum and raspberry flavors. It’s always wrapped inside the ball of dough before heading to the fryer — the “traditional way” of making paczki — as opposed to injecting the filling, said Niziolek.

Park Ridge resident Peter Wachowski said he usually makes a 5 a.m. trip to the restaurant on Fat Thursday to avoid the one- to two-hour wait in line.

“I think that the paczki here honestly are the best I’ve ever had anywhere in the entire city of Chicago,” Wachowski said, adding he’d wait for hours if it came to that.

Elżbieta Sikorska said she’s been a restaurant patron for 15 years and drove 50 minutes from Island Lake to get her Fat Thursday fill.

“Today I have the first time in the morning,” Sikorska said. “That probably is very fast, but usually I come in the afternoon, and I stay in the line two, three hours.”

Missed out on Fat Thursday? No sweat. Polish Paczki Cafe serves paczki year-round (including Fat Tuesday).

$3.25/paczek; cash and card accepted.

Here are some other eateries also offering the dessert this year:

La Blondina

After closing her bakery La Blondina in 2013, Agnieszka “Agnes” Hurtado started baking for friends and family and eventually grew her business out of her Villa Park home. Today she bakes hundreds of paczki (even 2,000 paczki some years) in addition to bread, tarts and cakes.

In a 2024 interview with WTTW News, Hurtado shared a step-by-step tutorial on how to make the Polish pastries. But if baking isn’t your jam, then place an order for her rose- or plum-filled paczki (she only makes two flavors) on La Blondina Bakery’s Facebook page.

$3.50/paczek; cash and Zelle accepted.

Deli 4 You Market

The Polish grocery chain Deli 4 You Market will open its doors at 6 a.m. to accommodate the demand this Fat Tuesday, and with five locations across the northwest suburbs, paczki-lovers will be able to get their fair share of the dessert.

Customers can expect to find flavors ranging from the traditional (raspberry, rose and plum) and unique (pistachio, Kinder Bueno and poppyseed) to the decadent (whipped cream with strawberries or blueberries).

$1.98-$3.58/paczek; cash and card accepted.

Polombia

Polombia, located on the first floor of the Accenture Tower, is run by husband-wife team Phillipe Sobon and Cynthia Orobio, who were raised in Polish and Colombian households respectively. Together they’ve merged not only savory food offerings from each country, but also dessert.

Polombia will offer what they call “paisa paczki” this Fat Tuesday: kiwi lime coconut, guava strawberry cheesecake, chocolate arequipe, hibiscus rose, mango apple, sweet corn custard and brown butter. Stop by in person or order online.

$4/paczek; half dozen/$23; dozen/$45; cash and card accepted.

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