Pączki are Polish filled doughnuts. Say it POONCH-key. Rich dough, a heavy filling, a lot of sugar.
Some of these shops make them year-round. For a few, Fat Tuesday, the last day before Lent, is the biggest day of the year.
Rich dough, a heavy filling, a lot of sugar.
Check the date
Fat Tuesday moves every year. Check the date, and the shop's hours, before you go.
Where they are
Rolling out the map…
Positions are approximate, town-level.
The shops
New Palace Bakery
Hamtramck, MI · since 1908
A Polish bakery in Hamtramck since 1908, still family-owned and run today by Suzy Ognanovich. Prune, custard, strawberry and a new flavor every year. On Pączki Day the line draws people from across Michigan.
Smurawa's Country Bakery
Pulaski, WI · since 1998
Greg and Janice Smurawa opened in 1998 with a pączki recipe their family traces back more than 100 years. For Fat Tuesday they make roughly 1,600 dozen, in 14 varieties.
A West Side shop with more than 50 years behind it. Thousands of pączki go out on Fat Tuesday. The rest of the year there's a Texas-sized doughnut equal to a dozen.
A Polish father and son brought a family potato-dough recipe to midcoast Maine in 2018. The shop changed hands in 2022, the recipes stayed, and pączki show up on Saturdays.
