Nostalgic Tastebuds

My favorite restaurant of all time was called Warsaw Inn of McHenry. It was the kind of place that I loved so much I didn't want to eat there all the time. I saved it for special occasions. These occasions started when I was just a kid. We ate there with my grandparents, my grandma's sister, my visiting aunts, uncles and cousins from California. My dad and I went there for some special bonding time before I graduated from high school; I finally got to hear intimate details about his football injury that ultimately left him with one leg shorter than the other. When I said special I guess I didn't always mean rosy, happy special. In college the first time my love came home to visit the folks we went to Warsaw Inn. Steve ate so much at the all-you-can-eat buffet that he got seriously sick to his stomach. My parents found it embarrassingly humorouse. I just tried not to say, I told you so.

Warsaw Inn was a Polish-American smorgasbord. As a child I filled my plate with pudding (chocolate only) and red jello; sometimes cottage cheese and canned fruit; sweet cheese pierogies; and maybe a small chunk of polish sausage; I always finished with kolachkies and other desserts. As I got older I fine tuned my selections to focus on three main food groups- cheese pierogies, polish sausage, and kolachky's.

Since Grandma H's family came from Poland and she spoke Polish, I grew up with some Polish traditions in the kitchen. Pierogies were one of them. In order to make them, the entire family had to help. Lots of fingers were needed to pinch the dough crescents securely around the filling. Grandma and my parents always had sauerkraut filling and potato and maybe meat plus the sweet cheese. I remember that the older I got, the harder it was to find the correct type of cheese. It just wasn't in demand anymore. Galumpkies (spelling?) were another regular menu item at Grandma and Grandpa Helwig's. The memory brings back the nauseating smell of cooked cabbage and red sauce, with a hint of meat. Ugh! I hated galumpkies! Sauerkraut and Kluski noodles popped up now and again, although, thankfully we didn't have to eat it! I have a vague memory of Aunt Sophie (Grandma's sister) helping Grandma make dumplings of some sort, perhaps plum.  But other than those dishes I only have the memories of stories my dad told me about what he used to eat growing up, and those are for another time.

I know it sounds ridiculous so maybe I need to paint a clearer picture of what this place means to me. Without meaning to sound like the beginning of titanic...
I can still smell the stale cigarette smoke and the musty dark wooded furniture. The dim lighting hid the fact that the plants were all fake but highlighted the buffet tucked up against the far wall. The meat of choice was ready to be carved by a waiting attendant and awash in red-tinted lights from the heat lamp. I always avoided eye contact and scurried away as fast as possible; I did not like that kind of meat.  I can still taste the buttery "sauce" and the tender, plump sweet cheese pierogies. I won't admit this to my family, but I prefer Warsaw Inn's pierogies to Grandma H's homemade ones. I think it is because of the buttery vat that they soak in while waiting to be scooped and devoured. The polish sausage had just the right spices and melt in your mouth texture. Meat has never been a favorite food choice; Warsaw Inn polish sausage is it's own separate category. And lastly, the infamous cookies- kolatchky's. I actually preferred our homemade versions to Warsaw Inn, but the meal would not feel complete without them.  At home we used a round glass to cut out the tender cream cheese dough. At Warsaw Inn two sides of a rectangle were folded over in the middle to make a neat looking crescent shape. They were always a little too browned for my taste. Oh the homemade ones were so tender, flaky and perfect. Apricot filling, in either scenario, were always my favorite. back before we yanked up our California roots and headed east, we came to Illinois for a visit and to scout out potential new-home areas. We made it a point to stop at Warsaw Inn. Steve controlled himself and avoided a massive belly-ache. When the cashier heard we were from California but had to eat there, they gave us a whole take-out box filled with kolachkys! 

This pregnancy has left me disliking food even more than normal. Somedays there isn't anything that sounds good. So one day Steve and I started plotting a trip to Warsaw Inn. It is located across the state line and over 2 hours away. Getting there from Madison had never been done because of the logistics involved in the process. It had been a few years since we had been there and my mouth was watering something fierce as we talked about options.  Steve sat down at the computer and looked it up to double check the hours and days of operation.  I knew something was wrong when I heard him gasp and tentatively start to say, "Uh, Tara?"  I almost cried when he told me that Warsaw Inn had closed it's doors- almost 2 years prior! They had become a catering-only operation. No more smorgasboard. No more crazy plan to gorge ourselves senseless. No taking Emma and sharing the tradition with her. No more succulent pierogies. No more Warsaw Inn! I was crushed. I am crushed.  I still can't believe that we missed our last chance. I guess we better start practicing the art of making our own pierogies. And I wonder who has the kolachky recipe?