WAUWATOSA, Wis. — In some parts of the country, people refer to the day before Lent begins, as Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday.
Here in Wisconsin, it’s more commonly known as Paczki Day, and it’s one of the biggest days of the year for bakeries.
“For us, Fat Tuesday is definitely our Superbowl,” said Joey Carioti, the co-owner of Cranky Al’s, a Wauwatosa bakery that has been around for more than 25 years.
“It’s obviously a proud moment when you see people lined up outside at 5:30 a.m., ready to get in and pick up their order,” he said.
Paczki are Polish pastries filled with fruit jams and custard.
“Obviously we have a huge number of Polish heritages in the Milwaukee and Wisconsin area, but on top of that, it’s really cool to see when everyone else jumps on board and wants to support the tradition,” Carioti said.
Cranky Al's has been busy preparing. It’s expected to sell about 14,000 paczki this year. That’s roughly 1,000 more than his bakery sold last year on Paczki Day.
“This year we made it a little bit easier for customers, where we had a dedicated website that they can order paczkis from,” Carioti said. “For us that was a huge improvement this year. Also just changing up the flavors year in and year out really helps.”
To make this year even busier, Paczki Day falls in the same week as Valentine’s Day.
“It’s definitely going to be busy,” Carioti said.
While Carioti and his team look forward to some down time once things slow down, they said they love their job.