Czerw's Polish Kielbasa • 1938

Inside a converted horse stable in Port Richmond, Jan Czerw's handbuilt brick oven smokehouses still blacken the air with cherry and apple smoke, curing kielbasa the same way they have since Polish immigrant Czerw opened shop in 1938. Three generations later, the Czerw brothers smoke their sausages over real wood—no liquid smoke, no shortcuts—and hand-roll pierogis in flavors like Philly cheesesteak alongside traditional potato and sauerkraut. Lines snake down Tilton Street on Good Friday and Christmas, when the neighborhood waits for hours in the smoke-filled room for coils of fresh kielbasa draped over giant rods.