Making pierogi is something Erica Pietrzyk has done since she was a kid.
“My sister and I would often eat the raw dough because we liked it when we were kids,” says Pietrzyk.
For her and her family, making pierogi was a family activity. Everyone would come over to the house, and the day would be filled with lots of potato peeling, and pierogi stuffing. Frequently this was done around a major hjoliday, like Christmas or Easter, but sometimes it would be done just because.
So when Pietrzyk was working at a bar, and her patrons wanted food, she knew just what to make.
“I started making pierogi for them because I didn’t know what else I could make,” explains Pietrzyk. “It was really surprising to me, once I started selling them to my friends, that they really loved the fillings. To me it was just my family’s pierogi, I didn’t think it was anything special.”
After a few weeks of doing her family’s traditional fillings - potato and cheese, sauerkraut and bacon, and sauerkraut and mushroom - she started to get creative with her fillings. She made a loaded baked potato pierogi, a Buffalo chicken one, even one with an apple pie filling. She now has over 100 unique recipes.
These one-of-a-kind pierogi gained her a strong following. She started doing pop-ups in other local bars. One of the biggest ones was at Nancy Whiskey’s where she sold out of pierogi in 2 hours. That’s when she knew she had a potential business on her hands.
In 2019 Pietrzyk Pierogi got its own storefront inside the Gratiot Central Market. Before that, she was working out of a church’s commissary; now she could make pierogi every day of the week. When the pandemic hit, she started putting more of a focus on getting into the retail market. Pietrzyk Pierogi went from being in 4 local grocery stores to over 20, plus they landed an account with Kroger getting them into over 100.
Pierogi isn’t all they make, however. Around Fat Tuesday they make paczki as well. Just like her pierogi have some unique fillings, so do her paczki. The strawberry jalapeno has been a favorite, and this year she is adding a horseradish orange marmalade. She will also have classic flavors like raspberry, blueberry, and vanilla custard.
For the full story, watch the video above.
Pietrzyk Pierogi is located at 1429 Gratiot Ave Suite 109 inside the Gratiot Central Market in Detroit.