My Czech-tastic Trip to West (comma) Texas

Kolaches and Klobasneks, oh my!

This little town was a detour stop for us on a trip to Waco, Texas. I had heard the original Kolaches were in West, Texas with a large Czech community so I thought, why not?  I was surprised by this cute little town because there were a lot of little boutiques and cute shopping to do beyond just getting a kolache and learning about the Czech history, but let’s talk about kolaches for a second. Apparently a kolache is the name for the little fruit filled Danish things. They can be pastries filled with cream cheese or fruit. OR BOTH! I mean who doesn’t think that sounds delicious, but I also like the little bun things that are more like pigs in a blanket or like a savory concoction wrapped in dough, I guess, technically, these are called klobasneks but the rest of Texas just uses the term kolache universally. My hubby’s favorite is the boudin filled that they used to serve at Buccees. Peach and cream cheese or Sausage and jalapeno… oh so many flavor choices but when is the next time I’m going to go to West? I might as well have both a sweet and a savory right? So, my husband had heard about this very popular place that’s right off the freeway called Czech Stop. It’s actually a gas station but it’s one of those big gas stations with a bakery on the side, under the same roof. We got there around 10 AM on Wednesday morning because I did a little too much shopping in Dallas and we didn’t get to Waco until the evening. In hindsight. I think we would’ve just stayed the night in West or one of those hotels in between Dallas and West, and then got up in the morning and got kolaches while it was bright and early. As it stood, we left our hotel in Waco on Wednesday morning and drove up to West to have breakfast at one of the first kolache places. The bakery was closed already so you had to order the kolaches at a bakery window in the gas station portion of the store. There was a steady line of people trying to get in and order their kolaches. There was a nice bakery window where you could see all the yummy treats. We ended up getting a savory pastry and a sweet kolache each. On our way towards the door, I saw two little cafeteria style booths that probably very rarely got used but worked perfectly for us. The sweet kolache tasted very much like what you would buy in the grocery store, pre-packaged. The savory pastry products were good, but there was one savory pastry that I wish I would’ve bought more of. I could see sticking them in my freezer and pulling them out for guest’s breakfast at my house. It was a fresh bun filled with country gravy and crumbled breakfast sausage. It tasted like handheld biscuits and gravy. It’s one of the best things I’ve eaten, at least in the last month. It was very filling but I couldn’t help but wonder if a bakery that was a little more traditional and a little less commercialized would taste the same. We had seen a billboard on the way in for a bakery and pizza restaurant called Gerick's. It was just around the corner from the Czech Stop so we decided to stop in and share one more kolache to be able to compare. The ambience of this restaurant was so very different from the gas station that we had just left. It was a cute old style pizza restaurant with a bakery window where you could see sweets for days. They had an entire window  of just cinnamon rolls that were almost as big as your head and included a few bites of your favorite after dinner treat as a highlight flavor.  The cheesecake cinnamon roll and the chocolate cake cinnamon roll, looked particularly mouthwatering.  Unfortunately, we had no way to save that much goodness and we were already very full from the previous bakery so we did not get to try the cinnamon roll…this trip. We did however share one sweet kolache just to see which was better. We waited our turn behind two people that were both buying at least a dozen, and we explained to the Shopkeep that we were just going to have one. He told us that he bet he knew which kolache we would find better, but said nothing more. The look on his face was everything and he was absolutely right. This was fresh and traditional and nothing like a grocery store pre-packaged product. We were sad that we had already filled up at the other bakery and that it was not quite lunch so we couldn’t try the pizza from this amazing restaurant. 

Czech Out These Finds!

Time to walk off a few calories! We went to a cute little boutique called Shoppe 826 on Columbus Street that even had a frozen margarita machine to make their customers happy while they shop. I saw several shirts with ‘West (comma) Texas” printed on the front. I didn’t get it at first and even after I did, I didn’t think it was that clever. I found myself saying that the rest of the day because it was such a cute was to differentiate west Texas from West, Texas. I should have bought that shirt. Oh well. We then went to several adorable boutiques downtown on the main strip including the Old Corner Drugstore. Seeing the pictures on the wall from that same drugstore in the 1900s was reminiscent of a romantic black-and-white movie. One of the Shop owners even directed us to a Czeck home garden, and gift store, Slovacke’s.  It was laid out like a rest stop on the side of the freeway and it was huge. Upon entering, ten million unique items jump out at you while you desperately think of who you need to buy for. The store had a little deli in the back that served sausages and sandwiches and had a consistent line of customers that looked to be very satisfied. There was an outdoor area for cute garden supplies, and then an entire separate building for holiday and home decorations. 

What’s For Lunch?

Pierogies from Picha’s Czech-American Restaurant

After a few more thrift and antique shops, we were ready to tackle the traditional Czech lunch at Picha’s Czech American Restaurant. We started with the pierogies. These were delicious little potato and cheese filled pastas that you dip into this white creamy sauce. I don’t know who could eat all of that sour cream or cream cheese-based sauce with the five or six pierogies that we got for an appetizer, but you didn’t run out of sauce! Still stuffed from everything I had eaten that day I just ordered a simple grilled ham sandwich, which was good, but tasted as if it had an entire bucket of Dukes mayonnaise slathered on while frying, definitely indulgent. My husband tried the cabbage rolls, sausage and Kraut. He said it was all good but nothing to write home about, the sauerkraut in particular was very different from anything that we had tried before. It's actually a sweet based kraut but went well with the other flavors. The restaurant was not very fancy, but overall the food was not far off from German mixed with Russian served out of a roadside Café (in my opinion) It definitely made you feel homey and we would come back. 

Joe and I on a rainy day enjoying lunch in West, Texas

Stuffed and satisfied, we drove the half hour or so back to our hotel in Waco and rested. It was still pretty early in the evening, so we decided to get a glass of wine from the bar at the hotel and soak in the indoor hot tub. We are not huge fans of the smell of indoor pools and hot tubs, but it was nice to be away from the weather elements. We were happy to have experienced the Czech community for the short time we were there. If we went again, we would expand beyond food and shopping into the community center and we did take note of posters for lots of different festivals. We may be back as we head to see other adventures in central Texas.