Of pierogis and paczkis

Lidia Trempe has taken her family’s bakery and made it quintessentially Cleveland and one of the city’s hotspots. 

“Be sure to come hungry,” Lidia Trempe prepped us.

We were coordinating a visit to her Parma, Ohio, bakery Rudy’s Strudel and she had plans for us.

“I am an eastern Euro mom and feeding people is my passion.”

That passion has fueled Lidia for the past 16 years as the second-generation owner of the popular bakery. And yet, “passion” doesn’t seem to fully capture what you feel when meeting her. She bounds around her shop with an infectious, seemingly bottomless well of energy. It’s magnetic, her voice bright, full, welcoming. 

When we met her, she immediately pulled us in for an embrace.

“I’m a hugger,” she boasts.

Indeed, she is. And perhaps that is the best way to describe Rudy’s: a warm hug. The walls are plastered with memorabilia, news clippings, vintage album covers. The smell of freshly baked kolachkis, strudels, tortes, breads, and pastries waft through the air. For the regular and newcomer alike, it feels like home, a warm eastern European home. And that’s the way Lidia wants it.

“The customers are everything. That’s the motivation,” she says.

What business isn’t focused on customers? They’re the driving force behind profits, behind staying afloat and open. But Lidia sees beyond the expense sheets, bottom lines, and dollar signs. This isn’t about money for her.

“I’ve been to weddings and birthday parties. Customers that are no longer with us, I go to the funerals.

“This has become my family. We share tears with them, and we share laughter with them. And then we share our dinner table with them.”

In 2008, Lidia took over running Rudy’s from her Ukrainian mother, Eugenia, who, with her late husband, Roman, purchased the bakery in 1977. Lidia was in Chicago with her then-husband working as a lobbyist armed with her CSU degree in political science.

But when her mom called with the news that Rudy’s was on the brink of collapse, she came running. She’d grown up at the bakery. It was a second home. When she was a baby, her crib was behind one of the ovens. She started waiting on customers when she was five. One of her first memories was standing on a crate folding kolachki cookies.

And now, all of that sacrifice, all of that hard work was in jeopardy. It was a no-brainer. Lidia had to return. 

It took a year, but she breathed new life into the bakery. She started hosting paczki (pronounced puhnch·kee) parties, like the Fat Tuesday Paczki Day festival that now draws hundreds to the shop. She started developing new pierogi flavors like The Christmas Story with meatloaf, sour cream, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce and The Ballpark with kielbasa, sauerkraut, sour cream and stadium-style mustard. She started collaborating with local breweries and popular ice cream shops.

It’s won her acclaim throughout the city, made Rudy’s a go-to destination for Clevelanders, now anchors Parma’s Polish village, and has caught the attention of national news outlets.

Just in April, Lidia appeared on “Good Morning America” — in her signature floral babushka and “born to the babushka” shirt, no less — to share her Eclipse-themed paczkis, one with chocolate buttercream with swirled fudge and white ganache and the other with vanilla buttercream with a chocolate ganache. The coverage isn’t a one-off though. Through the years, she’s been featured in The Plain Dealer, Newsweek, on CNN and PBS’s Ideastream.

And though she’s incredibly grateful for all the coverage, it’s a safe bet to say she’d be just fine without it, Rudy’s would be just fine without it. She has her faithful regulars and a new, steady stream of newcomers who’ve heard about the bakery. That’s because she’s not just serving up pastries and pierogis. There’s a big of helping of love along with it.

“Food is one of the most loving, incredible ways to express how you feel about somebody,” she said, adding:

“… sharing our cultures. I think it takes down boundaries. We share each other’s cultures, and we learn about each other, and I think that’s so incredibly important. But it’s loving. I think that sharing a meal, sharing your cuisine: it’s a hug.”

She’s got big plans for Rudy’s. Though some have suggested she move elsewhere, she scoffs at the idea. Think of it as the original McDonald’s in California; this is not going anywhere, she said. Rather, Lidia’s planning on expanding its current location, adding a record shop, a coffee shop, offering cooking classes and hosting parties.

She sees herself not as Rudy’s owner, but a steward. Life, the universe, chance — whatever you want to call it — has designated her as the leader for now.  And she’s sure it will live on forever.