Overview
- Chicago’s Polish Pączki Cafe is running a 36-hour handmade operation for Fat Thursday, using a traditional recipe with plum, rose and raspberry marmalades folded into the dough and keeping prices at $3.25 despite rising ingredient costs.
- Local guides are steering buyers to dozens of shops for Tuesday, Feb. 17 Pączki Day, including a Chicago Sun-Times list of 20 bakeries that advise calling ahead or ordering online to secure boxes.
- Milwaukee outlets report bakeries are taking preorders and publishing flavor lineups and deadlines, with National Bakery & Deli and others preparing large batches for Fat Tuesday.
- New York’s Greenpoint and Williamsburg bakeries, including Charlotte Patisserie, Peter Pan, Syrena and Moe’s Doughs, are offering pączki for both Fat Thursday and Fat Tuesday with options to preorder and scheduled online releases for mixed packs.
- Coverage underscores the pre-Lenten tradition in Poland on Fat Thursday and in U.S. communities on Fat Tuesday, noting a popular superstition that eating pączki brings good luck for the year and highlighting both classic and modern flavors.