A new restaurant in Guelph is offering an authentic taste of Poland.
Pierogi House has opened in the Clairfield Commons plaza at 5 Clair Rd. W.
It's the third location for a business that began in 2015 in Kitchener. After expanding to Waterloo a short time later, co-owner Lila Hejmej found people were coming from far and wide.
"We had people coming from Guelph, and then the pandemic happened," she told GuelphToday.
"We stopped doing everything. After the pandemic, we found a beautiful location here. It took us a while, and here we are."
They also offer schnitzel, kielbasa, a variety of sides and a Polish cheesecake called sernik. Family-sized portions are an option.
Hejmej moved to Canada 30 years ago from her native Poland with her husband Jack.
About a decade later, her mother Irena Kotas made the move as well, bringing with her the family pierogi recipe, which is a staple in southeast Poland.
The recipe itself is secret, but simple, she said: they're made with love and real ingredients, from the dough, the potatoes, the cheese and everything in between.
So with a desire to get the cuisine out to more than just family and friends, the stars aligned to go into business.
"My husband thought nobody makes them like we do," Hejmej said. "So when he lost his job, he said he was going to open a restaurant with my mother, so they did."
She joined the team about six months later, and hasn't looked back. After establishing themselves in Waterloo region, she said Guelph was the natural next step for expansion, a spot to draw more customers and an easy, short drive from her Kitchener home.
"I drive here every day, and it's an absolutely beautiful drive," she said. "I do not take (the) highway, so I take the back roads, the country roads and they are amazing."
The new location opened two weeks ago in the former Magicuts location, in between Subway and Shoeless Joe's.
It's a smaller location, with a few tables to the right. The pierogies themselves are handmade – Kotas, who they call Babcia, or grandma in Polish – still does some of the work, though Hejmej said she's on a well-deserved leisure trip back to Poland at the moment.
And while the 5 a.m. wake ups to start handmaking each pierogi doesn't happen as often as before, things are going quite well for the family run business.
"It's amazing," Hejmej said. "Beautiful neighbourhood, and amazing people, very supportive, very nice, smiling and easy going. It's been a beautiful two weeks (since opening), very busy."
Things are going so well for the business, a fourth location is in the works.
Where it lands, nobody knows. Hejmej said they're taking their time to figure out where that will be.
