Fat Tuesday brings tradition of paczki in Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE - Workers at National Bakery in Milwaukee were creating and selling thousands of paczki to people who stood in line for more than an hour in sleet and snow.
An accordion player sounded the opening of the well-known bakery Tuesday and provided a Polish-themed soundtrack for a Fat Tuesday tradition - picking up paczki on the corner of South 16th Street and West Euclid Avenue.
"Every year," said Alfredo, describing his yearly wait in line at National Bakery to TODAY'S TMJ4's Melissa McCrady.
"We got here around 5:00 a.m., waiting outside."
The bakery was prepared to sell 36,000 paczki on Fat Tuesday, with an expected two-day tally of 43,000 between Monday and Tuesday.
"It's a fun day for us," said Jeff Callen.
"We have two different doughs today. We have a regular dough, and we have a rich butter dough. It's deep fried, and it has different kinds of fillings inside."
They use raspberry, prune and raisin filling.
After biting into the paczki on live TV, Alfredo gave a review many people around Southeastern Wisconsin would concur with: "real good."
Laura Parrino-Bixby tells us she's Italian, but was Polish on Tuesday.
"It was worth the calories. This is the best."
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