Vanilla bourbon peach kolache (Jenny Holm).
We’ve all got one: that particular food that links you instantly with other people from your home state or hometown, the one you seek out every time you go back because you can’t find it here.
Native Houstonians Brian Stanford and Chris Svetlik bonded over kolaches, the so-called “National Pastry of Texas.” After living in D.C. for nearly a decade, the two decided it was high time the District got a taste of what we’ve been missing all this time. They began experimenting with their own recipes and branded themselves as Republic Kolache, turning out kolaches by the dozen at Mess Hall, the Brookland culinary incubator that has also served as a launching pad for Bullfrog Bagels and True Tonics, among other local food businesses.
Starting next Saturday (August 22), the pair will start serving their sweet and savory pastries on Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at American Ice Co. (917 V Street NW). The sweet ones will go for $2.50, the savory for $3.50. Coffee and mint sweet tea will also be on offer, as well as horchata for mixing into your java. .
Traditionally baked as a midday snack in Central Europe, kolaches (spelled in a variety of ways depending on where you find them) came to America in the mid-19th century with a wave of immigrants from what is now the Czech Republic. In Texas, the kolache quickly spread beyond the Czech population to become a Lone Star state icon, sold in donut shops and supersize general store/bakery hybrids attached to gas stations lining the highways connecting Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio.
The pastry evolved differently in different parts of the country. Whereas Midwestern kolaches typically resemble a danish, with a caldera of filling in the center of a short round of dough, Texan bakers ensconce the filling deep inside the pastry. They pack them together in the oven like pull-away biscuits, so they come out tall and square. Savory fillings are another Texan innovation, albeit one with a long history. Call it “Czech-Mex”: what carb doesn’t taste good stuffed with sausage, cheese, and chilis?
“We’ve gotten a lot of messages from people who grew up eating kolaches that looked different from ours,” says Stanford. “We’re making the ones we know from Texas.”
They’re playing with that formula as well, experimenting with some nontraditional (even for Texas) fillings like a sweet vanilla bourbon peach with bacon and a savory half-smoke, stuffed with D.C.’s signature half-beef, half-pork sausage as well as sharp cheddar and jalapeño relish.
Even if the kolaches you’re familiar with don’t look like Republic’s, you’d be remiss to dismiss them out of hand. They’re soft and puffy, the bread as delectably buttery and eggy as brioche. Filling options include cream cheese and toasted pecan, poppyseed, spiced cherry, blueberry-ricotta, apple with ginger and cardamom, and chorizo. There’s talk of a brisket filling in the works.
Republic Kolache’s “residency” at American Ice is a test run for whatever comes next: Stanford and Svetlik aren’t sure yet what the future looks like.
“We are going to see what the market in D.C. wants in terms of whether kolaches are going to a breakfast food or something else,” says Svetlik. “That’s how we know them, but people might want something different here.”
I could see there being demand for kolaches at 2 a.m. when the bars close, but I hope that D.C. denizens will embrace them at breakfast instead. They are too good to waste on a drunk snack you won’t remember the next day. Savor them slowly over coffee and conversation instead, each bite by melt-in-your-mouth bite.
