EVANSTON, IL — Bennison’s Bakery has ramped up its paczki manufacturing into full gear because the family-owned Evanston bakery prepares for Fats Tuesday — also referred to as Paczki Day.
Paczki, pronounced “punch-key,” are Polish pastries historically baked within the days main as much as Lent. The deep-fried doughnuts are full of a wide range of fillings and lined in sugar or icing.
Bennison’s, 1000 Davis St., opened in 1938 and has been owned by the Downer household for the previous 50 years. The bakery sells 1000’s of paczki yearly.
Proprietor Jory Downer, who has labored on the bakery since 1975, mentioned final yr’s Paczki Day was offered with an ideal storm of challenges as pandemic-related capability restrictions mixed with a snowstorm.
“Rising up within the bakery, I knew someday that was going to occur,” Downer mentioned. “Someday we had been going to get dumped on with snow on Fats Tuesday, and final yr was the yr.”
However with delicate climate within the forecast, together with the top of native masks and proof-of-vaccination necessities, Downer instructed Patch he’s anticipating an enormous weekend of and large day Tuesday on the bakery.
“General, issues are rather more light-hearted now than they’ve been the final couple years, for certain,” he mentioned. “Persons are again within the temper, I feel, greater than they had been.”
Bennison’s affords 11 various kinds of paczki, together with fruit, chocolate and cream cheese fillings.
“I feel subsequent yr, we’ll drop one and add blueberry,” Downer mentioned.
The preferred, by far, is strawberry and whipped cream, he mentioned.
Downer mentioned the paczki-eating contest, which started in 2010 however has not been held since 2020, will return subsequent yr.
Bennison’s requires a minimal of 24 hours’ discover for orders, Downer mentioned, with about 4 out of 5 of them positioned on-line.
“At this level, it appears like we’ll flip our telephones off at midday on Sunday,” Downer mentioned, although the bakery could cease accepting on-line orders earlier.
“Do not wait, both approach,” Downer mentioned. “In some unspecified time in the future, we’ll say we have got all we will deal with.”
Those that miss out on pre-ordering the paczki of their alternative can nonetheless head over to the nook of Davis Avenue and Maple Avenue, the place containers will likely be accessible to walk-up prospects at an out of doors desk, climate allowing.