Instead, Mannarino decided to stick to the traditional way of making pierogies.

“Each individual pierogi is pinched by hand,” Mannarino said. “Each [staff member] handles that one pierogi many times.”

Pinching Pierogies

A typical day at Pierogies Plus starts at night when baker Volodymyer Petrovych, who emigrated from the Ukraine nearly five years, begins peeling and mashing the potatoes and mixing the dough.

Petrovych, 35, works from about 10 p.m. to the wee hours of the morning, making sure everything is ready when Mannarino and the women arrive at 7 a.m. to cut out the dough and pinch the pierogies.  

“I love it,” Petrovych said of his job. “It’s like you’re doing it in your own house. It’s like family.”

When the women arrive to make the pierogies, they greet Petrovych and one another. Then, they hustle to the kitchen to begin work.

Ukranian immigrant Volodymyer Petrovych makes his way through the kitchen in the early morning, preparing the stuffing that will fill the pierogies and stuffed cabbage.