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ZitoSalena @ZitoSalena - OAKMONT, Pa. — Forty years ago, Marc Serrao started making paczki. Serrao had just started his modest bakery in the suburban Pittsburgh river town when he decided to try his hand at the doughy confection, pronounced poonch-kee, which is filled with rich white sweet creams or candied jam fruits and traditionally made by Polish bakeries on Shrove, or Fat Tuesday.
“I made a batch of them for Fat Tuesday that year, which was three dozen,” Serrao said. “And I was so excited with how they turned out that I called my wife and told her not only how good they were but how they sold out that day.”
Today, Serrao starts making them on the Feast of Epiphany, or Jan. 6. Most bakeries stop producing them on Fat Tuesday, the day in many Christian religions before 40 days of fasting and Lent. But he sells them until Easter Sunday.
Last Fat Tuesday, Seeao sold nearly 7,000 in one day alone. Last year, he sold well over 250,000 during the entire season. On the day before Fat Tuesday, the line stretches throughout the 20,000-square-foot bakery and out the door. Despite three large parking lots, people are parking on the street or circling the block to find a spot, all just to grab their favorite confections.
Serrao began working in bakeries at age 13. A couple of years ago, he tripled the size of his original bakery. It is now lined with signature cookies, cakes, and doughnuts, along with a nearly 100-seat cafe for people to enjoy sweets and breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.
Faith and food have always been intertwined. In Louisiana, Mardi Gras celebrations will feature parades, king cakes, beads, and alcohol. In the industrial Midwest, the overindulgence is with food. But by looking at the people chatting, forming connections while they wait in line for their paczki, or sitting at tables in the Oakmont Bakery comparing their confections, it is clear that something else is going on. Something that is often overlooked. Something good.
https://x.com/ZitoSalena/status/2023905916026781959
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