The line stretched around the block before Pticek & Sons Bakery opened at 5 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15, with customers eager to grab the traditional Polish pastries that make Paczki Day one of the city’s most anticipated food traditions.
Paczki Day, celebrated the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, draws crowds to bakeries across Chicago’s Polish neighborhoods. For Pticek’s Bakery, which has operated since 1943 and moved to its Garfield Ridge location in 1959, it’s one of the busiest days of the year.
“At least the weather was a little warmer this morning. They didn’t have to wait in the cold,” said Antoinette Wingo, owner of Pticek’s Bakery…