While the power of his grandmother’s pierogi has clearly imprinted on Matt Justine, owner of Pierogi Bros, a new shop in Sanford, I am a little shocked that it took 10 or so years for their immense value to really sink in: GRANDMA’S PIEROGI.
“We liked them,” Justine tells me of he and his brother, Brian, but we were little kids. “But it was handmade, scratch-made food, and little kids don’t really like anything.” He chuckles.
By the time they hit the edge of that teen-boy growth spurt, though, these toothy dumplings — Grandma’s favored recipe came stuffed with kraut, egg and sweet onion — were literally fought over at the dinner table.
“The last pierogi was sought after,” he says. “And if you were younger, you didn’t go after it. You let someone older have it.”
Justine’s dad had three brothers, so he and his own relented. For a few years, anyway.
Grandma Helen, the daughter of Polish immigrants, grew up in New Castle, Pennsylvania, before moving to Florida. And it is her very recipe you’ll find on the Pierogi Bros. menu — Grandma’s Original — which features everything from Proper Potato (“like a classic vanilla,” he says) to Hot Potato and Cheese to modern advents like Buffalo chicken and Philly cheesesteak.
A takeout container of onion-slathered pierogi from Pierogi Bros. in Sanford. (Amy Drew Thompson/Orlando Sentinel)
They do seasonal and dessert-y ones, too.
I manage to resist the allure of the apple pie, but I cannot walk away from anything that says “Grandma.” And as the aroma of the mountain of buttery onions atop these pasta purses beckons from the takeout box riding shotgun, I know that come the next stoplight, I’ll be digging out the plastic fork to sample at least one before they lose their flatop-infused heat.
I can’t have more than one. Because I’m on my way to grab pierogi elsewhere in the city. National Pierogi Day was approaching (Oct. 8).
Pierogi One co-owners and longtime friends and business partners Iwona Wawer, left, and Pawel Redestowicz cut the ribbon on their new Orlando eatery back in June. (Courtesy Pierogi One)
Iwona Wawer is acutely aware.
She and her friend and partner, Pawel Redestowicz, opened their Orlando eatery, Pierogi One, recently, as well. It feels like this dish, widely considered the national dish of their native Poland, might be having a moment here in town.
“If you ask any American what they know about Polish food, they’re going to tell you pierogi and kielbasa,” she says.
Both Pierogi One and Pierogi Bros. serve this well-known sausage.
But about two decades ago, when she came to the States, she mostly avoided pierogi.
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“I know they’re not going to be like homemade, like my grandma was making,” she explains, though eventually, she dipped a toe in the water. “I tried a couple of times, and some were okay, but not the best.”
In Poland, mushroom-sauerkraut and potato are the most popular, she tells me, though Pierogi One offers 12 other varieties, including pork, spicy beef, bacon cheddar, Philly cheesesteak (with so many Polish communities in Pennsylvania, it’s not hard to connect the dots) and spinach-feta.
They’ve also got dessert varieties, including a vanilla cheese I tried while there. While pan-frying is an option for the savories, the dessert pierogi, whether cheese or fruit, are served boiled.
The dessert pierogi at Pierogi One are boiled and come with fruit or vanilla-cheese filling. If they were pan-crisped, they’d give me 100 percent blintz vibes. Tasty, though! (Courtesy Lisa Wilk/TasteCookSip.com)
If they’re ever an option in Pierogi One’s grab-and-go fridge, I’d take them home for a post-boil pan-crisping, as the cheesy ones are a close cousin to one of my favorites: blintzes.
I didn’t grow up with pan-seared pierogi. My gram was a boiler. Always potato-onion. Salt, pepper, a mound of full-fat sour cream: boom! I can’t describe the nostalgia and comfort.
It’s why, while my companion went for the crispy version served at Winter Park’s Polish original, Anna’s Polish Restaurant, I wanted mine steamy and soft. Topped with super-caramelized onions, however, they did not lack for texture. Rather than go all potato, I mixed it up with a trifecta, adding mushroom-sauerkraut and meat options, as well.
The O.G. Boiled pierogi from Anna’s Polish in Winter Park. You can get them pan-fried here, too. Topped with beautifully caramelized onions and served with a side of sour cream, they were serving ’em by the plateful on a recent Sunday evening visit, when multigenerational diners, many speaking Polish, enjoyed a relaxed meal. (Courtesy Lisa Wilk/TasteCookSip.com)
Where the other eateries feel New World, in particular Pierogi Bros., which seems almost like a mini-diner in the space formerly occupied by Best Fish and Chicken Wings — a killer location for post-Sanfording mop-up, just steps from the town’s many nightlife options — Anna’s is Old World, for sure.
Popping in for a Sunday early bird, the place was hopping. Full tables cut a swath across the generations — grandparents, children, grandchildren at one, three young Millennials at another, each with a motorcycle helmet. At most, Polish was being spoken.
Polish beer complements a slate of classic dishes from Pierogi One: potato pancakes and stuffed cabbage with sides of slaw and pickles. (Courtesy Lisa Wilk/TasteCookSip.com)
Wawer, Justine and me… we all brought up our grandparents’ kitchens. Anna’s feels like a grandparent’s home. Probably why it’s been a pierogi et. al. stronghold for more than 15 years.
Pierogi One has been doing brisk business since June, Wawer tells me. Catering has ramped up, and customers from Poland, Ukraine, Germany and more, plus Americans — many from Chicago and Pennsylvania — have been excited to visit the space.
It’s charming, with lovely art and nice light for an early weekday dinner. A quiet time as I sip a refreshing Żywiec Białe, awaiting the arrival of my pierogi plate. One side feels more like a European cafe, the other a crisp, functioning bodega, with a reach-in for taking home neatly packaged boxes of pierogi and a few other Euro-sourced goodies.
Solid foodie philosophy at Pierogi One in Orlando. (Courtesy Pierogi One)
As Pierogi Bros., which first dabbled in its concept 10 years ago at the Orlando Farmers Market, and began proving it in earnest in Juno Beach back in 2001, they’re slowly finding their cruising altitude in The Bokey, busier than even Justine expected. During my pop-ins, a mix of dine-in, take-out and grab-and-go customers filled the space.
I grabbed a bag of Proper Potato for my freezer and, since then, have turned myself into a late-night, pan-sear psycho, caramelizing onions in chili crunch to top the crispy, pressed-flat dumplings. Topping them with green onions snipped from the pot I keep out back. Alas, I am out of sour cream.
Pierogi One is a cute, petite shop that melds grab-and-go with “sit and stay awhile.” (Courtesy Pierogi One)
These are not my grandmother’s pierogi, but I scarf happily. All at once delighted at the find and dismayed by the carb-related consequences.
Today, however, those calories don’t count. It’s a holiday after all.
Find me on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com, For more foodie fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group.
If you go
Anna’s Polish Restaurant: 3586 Aloma Ave. in Winter Park, 407-657-0020; facebook.com/AnnasPolishRestaurant
Pierogi Bros.: 405 E. 4th St. in Sanford; pierogibros.com
Pierogi One: 8865 Commodity Circle in Orlando, 407-420-0011; pierogione.com