- [Jake Voiceover] Hi, I'm Jake and this is my band, the Chardon Polka Band.

You are going to hear us play a lot of music on this show.

There's Mike, Mitch, Bob and the guy with a mustache is Brian.

Since I was 16 years old, polka music has been my job, and at that job I get to see and do some pretty crazy and interesting stuff, and I want to share those experiences and the music I love so much with all of you.

This is "The World According to Polka."

- You know, when most folks think about polka they're thinking about a style of music or a style of dance.

But when we think about polka, oh my goodness, it's so much more than that.

Polka is something that you can touch and feel, and polka is also something that you can taste.

And in today's episode, we're going to zero in on a very specific polka flavor and one of my favorite polka foods, the pierogi.

Now follow me, folks.

We're gonna go in here and it's gonna get real interesting.

(upbeat music) - [Jake Voiceover] We are at the production facility that is home to one of Northeast Ohio's most polka-rific entrepreneurs and her business, The Pierogi Lady.

And Pierogi Lady culinary creations are not only a mainstay at local festivals and events, but they can be found at various groceries and markets all across Ohio.

That means a whole lot of pierogis, and as we're about to see, a whole lot of fun.

- This is a dream come true, hopefully for both of us.

- Definitely.

- You're living your dream.

I'm here just enjoying the dream of being in a pierogi factory.

Can you tell me how you became The Pierogi Lady?

- My Grandma taught me how to make pierogis when I was little.

We made them every Sunday for the whole family.

It was always a huge buffet of food, everything from the chicken dumpling soup, to lasagna to chips.

You know, the whole spread was there.

My grandma was Polish.

Her mother came from Poland.

And even though my Grandpa was Irish, the family all kind of related to the Polish side.

- How did that family background and passion become all of this?

- I went to culinary school.

I worked in restaurants for years and years, and then finally decided I wanted to work for myself.

And so I opened The Pierogi Lady.

It was around the time when everybody was getting laid off, and I got laid off from the restaurant I was working at and I was just like, "I don't want to go back to, you know, not being my own boss anymore."

And the only thing I knew how to do besides work in a restaurant, was make pierogies.

And so that's how this started.

Our first farmer's market, we made $400, and I couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe people were buying our pierogies.

It was great.

- Doesn't it feel great when someone's just, they're giving you money, no matter how much it is, to do something you wanted to do anyway?

- Yes.

- Like I feel like that as a musician, you know?

You can hand me $5.00 and I'm like, "Well, cool!

(Autumn laughing) I was just gonna do this anyway."

- Yeah.

- I love to play the accordion.

(Autumn laughing) I feel like you get some of the same joy- - Definitely.

- As that.

It's awesome.

- Definitely.

- [Jake Voiceover] The Pierogi Lady and her team bring a lot of joy to folks all across Ohio, with an ever-increasing quantity of tasty pierogies.

- We can make about 35,000 a week by hand.

(bell ringing) So- - Wait, 35,000 pierogies?

- Yes.

- A week?

Pretty incredible.

- Yeah.

- [Jake] By hand?

- By hand.

- It's like Santa's workshop.

(Autumn laughing) - Definitely.

- My friends and neighbors, today on the show, we're hearing one of the greatest polka stories ever told, and that's the story of The Pierogi Lady.

Now, before we come back to the kitchen here and learn how to make these tasty treats, we've got some tasty treats for your ears, because the Chardon Polka Band has prepared some food-related music especially for today's episode, and we're gonna hear some of that right now.

(upbeat polka music) (upbeat polka music continues) ♪ Oh I think the girl just keeps on getting sweeter ♪ ♪ Time after time ♪ Yes every time I see her ♪ I don't know her name ♪ But I love her all the same ♪ She's the girl at the deli down the street ♪ ♪ And I am going to be very big and roly-poly ♪ ♪ If I can't stop eating all these calzones ♪ ♪ And all the stromboli ♪ It really isn't funny ♪ I'm spending all my money ♪ On the girl at the deli down the street ♪ (upbeat polka music continues) (upbeat polka music continues) ♪ Well the quickest way to a man's heart is his stomach ♪ ♪ That's how the saying goes ♪ I guess she's making her way to my heart ♪ ♪ As I'm eating all these pepperoni rolls ♪ ♪ So I'll grab potato salad and some cheesy bread ♪ ♪ Because I can't get that girl out of my head ♪ ♪ I'll keep gaining weight until I ask her on a date ♪ ♪ The girl at the deli down the street ♪ ♪ She's the girl at the deli down the street ♪ ♪ Oh the girl at the deli down the street ♪ (upbeat polka music continues) - Autumn, you are the lady in The Pierogi Lady.

- Yes.

- But I would feel bad if we didn't talk about the other half.

- Yes.

- The pierogi- - Guy?

- Yeah.

- Markus.

- Your boyfriend, Markus.

- Yes.

- Who is like, he's half of this stuff, right?

- Definitely, definitely.

He came full-time about eight years ago.

He worked at a steel mill, selling steel, and finally got to the point where I was like, "I can't do this by myself anymore."

He was already working weekends, so he was working a lot.

So I was like, "Can you just come on full-time?"

So he quit his job and he's been here ever since.

- All right, so when I think pierogies, I do think, you know, it's an ethnic food.

Why is it important to have people continuing these ethnic food traditions?

- It's very important, because if we weren't doing it, it would die off eventually.

My Grandma's Polish, and the whole family enjoys food and ethnic food, and if we weren't still doing it, we'd all be eating freezer-burnt, other big company pierogies, you know, that's just not family, you know?

- [Jake] Yeah.

- Not family made.

- Do you think the ethnic makeup of our community here has anything to do with the success of your business?

- It's so ethnic in Cleveland, and people really cling to their background and are proud of where they come from, whether it's Poland, Slovenia, you know, all of those countries are very proud people and want to continue their traditions.

- And we get to celebrate these traditions.

You know, you and me are both in lines of work where we, you know, you celebrate it through food, I celebrate it through music.

It's incredible.

- Yes.

- And we're not just celebrating it with folks of those backgrounds.

We're celebrating with all kinds of people.

- Right.

- I'm not Polish.

- Everybody loves pierogies.

- Yeah.

I love it.

I love being a part of it, so.

- We get all kinds of people in our line.

I love it when people haven't had pierogies before.

- There's people out there who haven't tasted a pierogi in Cleveland?

- It's amazing.

- And you're providing that service for 'em.

- Yes.

- You're making, you, you're making it a better place.

(Autumn laughing) It's awesome.

- Thank you.

I tried all the pierogies in town.

None of them were like my Grandma's.

So that was my goal, to set out making them like Gram did.

(upbeat polka music) (upbeat polka music continues) ♪ Sweet mama cook me some them cabbage rolls ♪ ♪ Until I'm at the limit that my belly holds ♪ ♪ With your cooking and loving ♪ I'm in need for nothing ♪ Sweet mama cook me some of them cabbage rolls ♪ ♪ I'm dancing in the kitchen with my baby doll ♪ ♪ Sausage sizzling on the stove top ♪ ♪ I'm gonna eat 'em all ♪ Garlic onion and tomato ♪ We've got Banky on the radio ♪ Dancing in the kitchen with my baby doll ♪ (upbeat polka music continues) (upbeat polka music continues) ♪ I've never tasted anything that was so delicious ♪ ♪ Don't worry 'bout the mess 'cause I'll wash the dishes ♪ ♪ Just saute and stir ♪ Listen to my heart purr ♪ Mama gotta gimme some of your sweet kisses ♪ (upbeat polka music continues) (upbeat polka music continues) (upbeat polka music continues) ♪ Sweet mama cook me some them cabbage rolls ♪ ♪ Until I'm at the limit that my belly holds ♪ ♪ With your cooking and your loving ♪ ♪ I'm in need for nothing ♪ Sweet mama cook me some of them cabbage rolls ♪ ♪ I said sweet mama cook me some of them cabbage rolls ♪ ♪ Until I'm at the limit that my belly holds ♪ ♪ With your cooking and your loving ♪ ♪ I'm in need for nothing ♪ Sweet mama cook me some of them cabbage rolls ♪ ♪ Sweet mama cook me some of them cabbage rolls ♪ ♪ Sweet mama cook me some of them cabbage rolls ♪ - Ladies and gentlemen, the universe has truly smiled upon us today because I am here with The Pierogi Lady and we're about to learn how to make pierogies from the number one pierogi artist on Earth, I think.

- Definitely.

- That's how I put it.

What's step number one?

- Well, first step for you is hairnet.

- What?

Like, I have to do this?

- Yeah.

- This is good television.

Let's... - Very cute.

- Why is the important?

(Jake laughing) Why is it?

- You don't want hair in the pierogies.

(Jake laughing) - That turns people off of pierogies?

- Definitely, definitely.

- All right, Jeff, how do I look?

Is it good?

- [Jeff] Spin around.

- All right.

- We've already got our dough rolled out for us.

- Okay.

- This is our potato, cheddar, onion filling.

- Potato, cheddar, onion?

- Onion.

And we're gonna take a scoop, and just place it on the dough.

And we're gonna- - A blop?

- A blop, yes.

All the way down.

We'll space them kind of far apart for you, since it's your first time.

Then we're just gonna give it a little spritz of water (water spritzing) and then we will fold and gather.

Now we're gonna take our cutter, and about halfway on the dough, and then cut.

Got your pierogi.

Seems pretty easy, right?

- Looking at it, it does.

- You can do it.

- So I'm gonna try this.

- Yes.

- Okay.

This is that ice cream scooper - [Autumn] Right in the middle.

- Right in the middle.

(ice cream scooper clicking) All right, just comes right outta there.

What other kind of ingredients could we put in a pierogi?

- We have some crazy flavors, like Thanksgiving dinner, which is turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy.

- Get outta here!

- It's so good.

And we have cheeseburger.

We have Kitchen Girl, which is after the Galley Boy at Swensons.

It's really good.

We even have a chocolate chip cannoli pierogi.

Delicious.

- Is that more of a non-traditional approach to the art of pierogi making?

- Definitely.

Sometimes traditionalists are a little like, "Ugh, what are you doing?"

But we wanna make pierogis for everybody.

We wanna make what we like to eat, so we just do crazy things.

If you're doing this all day, it's not super exciting, so you just think of things to put in a peirogi.

- That's kind of the same approach we have with polka music.

We try and spice it up with some other flavors in there- - Right, yeah?

- Other musical flavors- - Yeah.

- Instead of just strictly your standard Frank Yankovic, Johnny Vadnal flair, we try and throw in some other stuff.

- Great.

- Back, forward, like that?

- [Autumn] Right.

And then you wanna kind of gather that.

- Oh, I'm supposed to gather?

- [Autumn] So it sticks.

- [Jake] Gathers.

Got it.

Back, forward, gather.

- [Autumn] There you go.

- [Jake] Is that it?

- [Autumn] Yeah.

- Is these professional?

We're gonna- - Very good.

You're hired.

- They're all gathered.

There they are.

The little pierogies- - Perfect.

- Are in here.

You see 'em?

That's a little baby pierogi right there.

All right, then I slice 'em up.

- Then you're gonna cut 'em with the margarita shaker.

- Oh, nice.

That's awesome.

(Autumn laughing) Very clever.

- We're very high tech here at The Pierogi Lady.

- All right.

Didn't quite get that one.

Look at that, Jeff.

That's my pierogi, right there.

Just a little guy.

Just a little guy.

Oh my goodness.

And then- - [Jeff] You should name him.

- That one is Steve.

(Autumn laughing) - When you get to this next step, it's pinching the pierogi, and one of the most important things is you don't want any air.

So see here, we got a little air bubble?

- [Jake] Yeah.

- So we're just gonna pop that open and pinch it out.

It will cause it to open up when we boil the pierogies.

- Okay.

- So you don't want water in your mashed potatoes.

And then if you feel like you've got a little too much edge, you can just give it a little trim.

- If I ever need another career, I'm gonna be The Pierogi Jake.

- Mm-hmm.

Yes.

You think you can do about 10,000 a week?

You could do it.

- That's stressful just to even talk about for me.

(Autumn laughing) That's, wow.

This is such an amazing operation.

Today we're cooking up some tasty pierogies, but let's not forget that we also have some tasty polkas for you.

Now when you have friends or family over to eat, that's called entertaining.

And the Chardon Polka Band is gonna riff a little bit on that concept today by playing an old song for you called "The Entertainer."

That's our tie in for this next song.

("The Entertainer") ("The Entertainer" continues) ("The Entertainer" continues) ("The Entertainer" continues) ("The Entertainer" continues) ("The Entertainer" continues) ("The Entertainer" continues) ("The Entertainer" continues) ("The Entertainer" continues) (percussion music) (percussion music continues) ("The Entertainer" continues) - [Jake Voiceover] Our drummer, Bob Young, used a stunning combination of cookery equipment and accessories to perform that last tune for you.

And boy, it was tasty.

- You're also running a business.

- Yes.

- And it seems to me like you're running, like, eight businesses in one.

Tell us a little bit about The Pierogi Lady operation.

- Okay.

Well, our main gig is we supply pierogies to restaurants in the area, small stores in the area.

So we drive all over, delivering.

We even go to Columbus every Tuesday to deliver our pierogies and then- - Hold the phone.

- Okay.

- You do this all yourself?

Like, you're talking about you and Markus, you're driving these all over?

- Oh yeah.

- [Jake] It's not like you have a big shipping company.

- No.

- It's y'all out there in the truck?

- Yes.

- So you guys are a supply chain.

That's one angle of the business.

What else?

Like, what's going on here?

This is the kitchen.

- This is the kitchen where we make everything.

They make all the pierogies for business deliveries, home deliveries, and then on the weekends we do festivals, we set up at breweries.

You can see us all over northeast Ohio.

- Which is where you and me usually interact.

- Yes, yes.

- You know at the Dyngus Day, at ka-rant di-van-ia.

- Yes.

- At the Cleveland Oktoberfest.

You're, in my opinion all- - Yeah.

- The awesome, local events.

- Basically every weekend, we're somewhere.

- How does that feel to you?

- Yeah, I love the festivals.

I could do it every day.

It is exhausting and we're dead at the end of the day, but that's so much fun.

- Yeah.

You're preaching to the choir on that.

- Yeah.

(Autumn giggling) - But I imagine that's like entertaining.

Like, you get that onstage exhilaration.

- Yeah, definitely.

- Just watching people enjoy your product.

I mean, that's- - Yeah.

- That's why we create music, is to look in the audience and see a face light up or someone singing along.

You know, you have the culinary version of that, right?

- Right, right.

We love it.

And all of our girls who work in the kitchen work at the festivals with us.

And I think they love it, too.

(water splashing) - Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the boil.

And we've even brought another pierogi productionist into the mix.

Maddie, right?

- Yeah.

- All right, Maddie, I gotta ask you something before we proceed.

Would you rather have a horse-sized duck, so like a really big duck, or a duck-sized horse?

- I'd rather have a duck-sized horse.

They're really cute.

- It would be cute.

I mean, it would be the cuter option- - Yeah.

- Of the two, I feel like slightly less maintenance.

- [Maddie] Mm-hmm.

- I mean, if you've got a giant duck running around, the maintenance, the the cleanup, is gonna be just awful.

You chose correctly, and I feel like now we know each other enough that we can proceed with what I'm told is the boil.

- The boil.

- Autumn, why do we boil?

- We boil the pierogies so people at home don't have to.

- [Jake] Okay.

- When they purchase the pierogies, they're boiled.

All they have to do is saute them, throw 'em in a pan with a little butter and a little oil, fry 'em up, good to go.

- Could things go wrong if they weren't boiled?

- Yes.

If we froze a tray of pierogies that wasn't boiled, the dough could crack.

So we don't want that to happen.

- No one would want that.

- No, so we boil them.

- All right.

I'm dying to see how that works.

- Okay.

Maddie's gonna show us - [Jake] All right, let's see how this works.

So you just put 'em in there?

- [Autumn] Just put 'em in.

- [Jake] How long do they stay in there?

- [Autumn] Three minutes.

(upbeat polka music) (upbeat polka music continues) - That's it?

- That's it.

- Like, that's like we made the pierogies?

- Yes, all the way.

(upbeat polka music) ♪ Din da da din da da din ♪ Da da din da da dinner time ♪ Din da da din da da din da da din ♪ ♪ Din da da dinner time ♪ Din da da din da da din da da din da da dinner time ♪ ♪ It's din da da din da da din ♪ Din da da dinner time ♪ Now Mama's in the kitchen making barbecue ♪ ♪ Din da da dinner time ♪ I'm hungry for dinner ♪ How about you ♪ Din da da dinner time ♪ Make me anything you like ♪ And just put it on my plate ♪ You can call me for dinner anytime you like ♪ ♪ Just don't ever call me late - So this is pretty much the conclusion of the preparation.

We're gonna package these, right?

- Yes.

All right, (hands clapping) so we have six pierogis in a pack.

(Jake scatting) ♪ Din da da dinner time (Jake scatting) ♪ Dinner time (upbeat polka music) (Jake scatting) ♪ Din da da dinner time (Jake scatting) ♪ Din din dinner time (upbeat polka music continues) - Just pop that one corner up and push down.

- We're gonna burp it?

- Burp it.

- I love it.

Those are our pierogis, ready to go to someone's home.

- Ready to go.

♪ Din da da din da da din da da din da da dinner time ♪ ♪ It's din da da din da da din da da din da da dinner time ♪ ♪ Din da da din da da din da da din da da dinner time ♪ ♪ It's din da da din da da din da da din da da dinner time ♪ - All right, break for lunch.

- Lunch?

- That was dynamite!

- I'm gonna be honest, I wasn't sure about this project, but that's gonna win you an Emmy, buddy.

I gotta tell you.

Daytime TV Emmy.

- Daytime, nighttime.

- All the time.

- They're gonna gimme just the time.

- Autumn, this has been a dream come true.

Thank you for letting us come into your space.

- Sure.

- Learn about this awesome stuff, taste this awesome stuff, this flavor of polka.

- Anytime.

Thanks for coming.

- Now is there anything else you'd like our audience to know about the flavor of polka?

- I would just like them to know that we make everything with love and we really hope they enjoy them and hope it sparks some memories if they've had them from their childhood.

Or if this is the first time, that's even better.

We hope they want to eat them forever.

- Hey, thank you so much, Autumn.

- Thank you.

Thanks, Jake.

- There you have it, folks.

(door shutting) A pierogi empire in Akron, Ohio, and one that started with a cooking lesson between a grandmother and a granddaughter.

To me, these pierogis are such an important part of the polka community.

And I don't know about you, but I count myself (upbeat music) as so fortunate to live in a world where we can chase dreams like this, whether that dream be playing the accordion, or taking a rocket ship to the moon, or making pierogis for everyone to enjoy.

Yes, I am proud to live in that world.

And it's not just any world.

It's "The World According to Polka."

(upbeat polka music) ♪ Beautiful dreamer wake unto me ♪ ♪ Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee ♪ ♪ The sounds of this rude world ♪ ♪ Heard in the day ♪ Long by the moonlight have all passed away ♪ ♪ Beautiful dreamer ♪ Queen of my songs ♪ Listen while I woo thee with soft melody ♪ ♪ Gone are the cares of life's busy throng ♪ ♪ Beautiful dreamer awake unto me ♪ ♪ Beautiful dreamer awake unto me ♪ (upbeat music polka continues) (upbeat polka music continues) (upbeat polka music continues) ♪ Beautiful dreamer beam on my heart ♪ ♪ Clean is the on this dream-litted sea ♪ ♪ Then will all clouds of sorrow depart ♪ ♪ Beautiful dreamer awake unto me ♪ (upbeat polka music continues)