EVANSTON (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - It’s time for the once-a-year treat of paczkis. The Polish cousin of the donut is being gobbled up by the dozen today, Fat Tuesday.
In Evanston, a machine spit out round paczki dough out onto a blue conveyor belt where Bennison’s Bakery owner Jory Downer seamlessly laid them out on baking sheets. He and others have been working around the clock.
Daughter-in-law Blaine told us they’ve been filling orders not just for customers but other businesses such as some local coffee shops, a grocery store and even a bar.
Blaine Downer said she’d like to experiment with more paczki flavors, like Oreo-cream that was a hit, but there isn’t much room.
“The bakery is not that big itself. This is probably newer in the last 10 to 12 years as part of the bakery. It slowly got bigger, so there’s not room to store stuff…There’s a table above us,” said Downer.
Below that table were racks of paczkis waiting to be filled by an army of bakery workers. Missing is Guy Downer, who bought Bennison’s in 1967 and turned 100 last month.
“He just loves everything. When he comes here, it doesn’t matter what it is, he looks at it and just takes a bite out of it. It’s really fun, and he still helps,” said Downer.
She said the 86-year-old bakery sticks with mostly traditional flavors.
“Strawberry whipped cream is super popular, [as well as] raspberry. Last year, we didn’t have prune…People were like, ‘why don’t you have it?’ So, we brought it back,” she said.
Blaine said they stopped taking online and phone orders over the weekend but have paczkis for walk-ins as long as they’re in stock.
If you aren’t able to pick any up today - not to worry. Bennison’s is selling the polish treat through Saturday.
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