Grab A Tasty Paczki, Or A Dozen, At Wolf's Bakery For Fat Tuesday

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — Wolf’s Bakery, home of the original lemon fluff cake, as well as South Side Irish Soda Bread, butter pecan coffeecake, atomic cake and chocolate donuts, is rolling out the paczki for Fat Tuesday, which falls on Feb. 21.

Wolf’s is offering paczki (pronounced “ponchky”) with 12 flavors, including strawberry, lemon fluff, cherry, blueberry, vanilla custard, chocolate custard, raspberry, pineapple, cheese, apricot, prune and apple. The bakery prides itself on its FRESH strawberry paczki.

The secret to good paczki is the dough, with just a squirt of filling otherwise it's just a donut. The paczki tradition dates back to the Middle Ages, when Poles made paczki to use up all the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the house before fasting during the Lenten season. "Paczki Day" has since been embraced and celebrated in the heavily Polish-American Midwest on "Fat Tuesday," the last big blowout before Ash Wednesday.

Pre-orders will be open through Saturday, Feb. 18. Order them by phone, 708-422-7429. While Wolf’s will be serving walk-ins on Fat Tuesday, the bakery recommends pre-ordering and paying ahead of time to ensure that your favorite flavor is available. Wolf’s has already taken hundreds of orders. Paczki are $2.40 each, and $2.65 for the fresh strawberry.

Wolf’s Bakery, 3241 W. 95th St., Evergreen Park, has been baking goodies on 95th Street since 1939. The bakery will be open for Fat Tuesday, Feb. 21, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.