A Windsor bakery will not be making a popular Fat Tuesday treat this year.
Stiemar Bread Windsor Company Limited on Ouellette Avenue has announced the bakery will not be frying up or filling paczki next month.
"The demand has been so high in the past and it keeps getting bigger and bigger every year," says bakery co-owner Anita Della Valle. "We just can't do them properly and have them fresh and good and to supply all those paczki and have disappointed customers."
Della Valle says the bakery only wants to put out the best and made the decision to stop making paczki.
She says in the past, the bakery would produce paczki on Fat Tuesday but over the years started making them on the Monday too.
"Years ago when we only made so and they sold and we can make them in a day, we'd go 24-hours, it was great but then it got more and more orders and we just couldn't keep up with demand without sacrificing quality," she says. "We prefer not to put out that kind of quality if we can't put out the best."
Della Valle says last year some corners were cut and it didn't work out.
"In order to make the amount of paczki that are ordered, we don't have the fryers, we don't have the manpower, space, it's just outgrown us," says Della Valle. "We knew we would have mixed reviews for sure and we just hope that the customers who come to us regularly will appreciate it."
She says the bakery posted its decision on social media and says some customers were angry while others were disappointed but also understood the bakery's decision.
Della Valle says the bakery will be offering its regular donuts on Paczki Day.
In past years, the bakery made roughly 40,000 paczki.
This year paczki day takes place on Tuesday, February 13.