For struggling Polish club, a little help goes long way
PNH restaurant in Hartford reopens — entirely staffed by volunteers
The restaurant at Hartford’s Polish National Home has reopened and serves diners on weekends, staffed entirely by volunteers who are members of the Hartford PNH social club.
Mark Bruks, treasurer of the club, said the club at 60 Charter Oak Ave. will be open Saturdays from 4 to 9 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“It’ll probably be those hours for the next four to six weeks,” Bruks said.
He said the member-volunteers do about three- to four-hour shifts when they work. “The employment situation in restaurants is very difficult. They have all stepped up,” he said. “We are all doing our best to keep everything going and to maintain the quality for all of our patrons.”
Volunteer chef Bozena Pogorzelska is helped by the club’s Polish Food Committee, Bruks said.
He said volunteers always have been essential to the home — for grounds maintenance, repairs and occasionally washing dishes — but never to this extent. Bruks said the home is trying to hire staff, so far with no luck.
“We can hire people, but we can’t find people,” he said. “Eventually we’re going to have to start paying people, because we got $30,000 from the Payroll Protection Program that we have to spend by about Halloween.” If the home continues to have trouble hiring staff, the volunteers eventually
“The employment situation in restaurants is very difficult. They have all stepped up. We are all doing our best to keep everything going and to maintain the quality for all of our patrons.”
— Mark Bruks, treasurer of Hartford’s Polish National Home
will be paid from that fund, he said.
The summer menu is an abbreviated version of what the home usually serves.
Appetizers are stuffed cabbage, mini potato pancakes, hunter’s stew and a pierogi sampler. Entrees include potato pancakes; a pierogi plate; a stuffed cabbage plate; a Polish plate with kielbasa, bigos, pierogi, golabek and mashed potatoes; and a deluxe Polish plate, which also has a potato pancake. Two kielbasa sandwiches are available, two salads and a soup of the day.
Even though the staff is not paid, Bruks said, they would be happy to accept tips.
A note on Facebook apologized to patrons that the building has no air conditioning. The club is raising funds to install a system.
The reopening comes at a difficult time for the financially struggling Polish National Home.
The 1930s Art Deco building has been on the market since early 2020, as the organization sought a change to private ownership unless donors came forward to support the nonprofit social club.
But the sale hit a snag.
“One former member didn’t want the building sold,” he said. “He filed a lawsuit to block the sale.”
The delay caused by the lawsuit, as well as zoning issues, prompted a potential buyer to back out, Bruks said. The lawsuit was later withdrawn, he said.
The building is still for sale for $790,000 at coldwellbankerhomes.com.
More information is at polish homect.org.