The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Tradition prevails despite weather
Winter weather brings slower start to Fat Tuesday for bakery
Due to inclement weather and road conditions Feb. 16, Kiedrowski’s Simply Delicious Bakery, 2267 Cooper Foster Park Road in Amherst, experienced a slower than usual Fat Tuesday.
Tim Kiedrowski, owner of the bakery, said knowing just how the weather was going to impact business was difficult to anticipate since preparing for Fat Tuesday two months ago.
“We normally would have 10 to 15 people working in the back,” Kiedrowski said. “This morning, there’s not even five.”
However, he said the only time Feb. 16 that felt particularly slow was between five and six in the morning, when locals were starting their daily commute to work.
Since then, business stayed consistent throughout the morning and early afternoon, with between 400 and 500 dozen paczskis sold by about 12:30 p.m., he said.
“It was just so hard and difficult to adjust what I’m making,” Kiedrowski said. “Everything we make has to be done and eaten today and tomorrow (Feb. 17).”
Over the past two days,
he said his bakery has prepared around 400 dozen paczskis, which are filled with different fillings, with the most popular completed first.
The business still accommodated those who may have had to wait outside due to a nine customer limit in the store, with tent panels and umbrella heaters
set up outside the bakery along the sidewalk.
Kiedrowski said in almost four decades of paczski-making, he’s learned just how impactful weather can be on the bakery’s biggest day of the year.
“Weather is a big part of my business, and I’ve learned that over the last 38 years,” he said.