Serving traditional rusyn, polish, czech, & lithuanian dishes just like granny used to while also offering our own inventive modern flavor profiles and sass.
our story
PoLa Pickles & Pierogi was birthed from the crazy idea that certain traditions should be preserved--the most important one being really good scratch made food to stuff your face with whenever you have a deep desire to blow your diet and have zero regrets. So, when given the chance to bring Tali’s grandparent’s long used and adored pierogi recipes to the south, saying no was simply not an option.
Derek and Tali moved to New Orleans in 2018 and put their 3 year plan in motion. The goal was to get pierogi and other Eastern European dishes into the hands of anyone who was missing a taste of home or who were wanting to fall in love with a different kind of cuisine.
Here at PP & P , we do our best to source our ingredients and all the other things that we need to use in order to get our food into your mouth from the people who help make New Orleans special. Sometimes this works well and sometimes it doesn’t. Seasons, item availability , people who like us and want to give us things, people who don’t, and things of that unpredictable nature play the biggest roles. We try to make everything from scratch and when we can’t, we make sure to find the best local businesses who can make things for us. After all, sometimes it’s just not feasible to blow your own glass jars or make buttloads of homemade vinegar. That said, we try. Very hard.
Our Pierogi
Making pierogi is an important part in our long family history of crafting Polish, Rusyn, and Eastern European food from scratch. Since these delicious dumplings have been served for a myriad of reasons such as holidays, family get togethers, and as a special treat for friends, we take the time to make sure Granny’s recipes travel well and are as authentic as possible. That’s why we made damn sure we got it right. (Sorry for cussing, Gran)
Speaking of Gran….The dough and traditional filling recipes were passed down from her mother and remain unaltered. The non-traditional fillings and vegan dough are all Tali’s own creations focused heavily in the exploration of seasonal ingredients and the drive to make a pierogi that will appeal to anyone’s palate.
We make all dough and fillings from scratch and while we had our share of testing some different kinds of pierogi presses to assist in expediting the process during busy pop-up and delivery season, we found that keeping a traditional pinch method at the forefront was by far the only way to go in the end. Because, as the old saying goes “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. We’ll consider that a lesson learned.
our pickles
We have always believed that the secret to a perfect pickle is in the details. Over the years, we have spent countless hours testing recipes, technique, and sourcing the best local produce to achieve maximum taste and crunch. Because of this, all of our pickled items are uncooked and must be refrigerated before and after opening.
While we know it can be a challenge to fit a ton of pickle filled jars in your fridge, we know it’s better to have crisp and crunchy pickles in there than soggy ones.
That’s our main reason for making them the way we do. We like it better that way and hope you will too.
