Why are Polish restaurants not successful in the USA?

Wow, that sounds exactly like eating out in Poland...

ShortHairThug wrote:


when fast food joints in Poland empty out and zapiekanka kiosks/gyro stands/pastry stands stop all operations, you may have some hope in comparing the USA's "instant gratification" culture to Poland's food culture but until then....

Who are you kidding, if all your hot dog joints closed all of a sudden and the same happened in Poland we are back to square one, homemade meals for us but you would starve to death.

ShortHairThug wrote:


a common misconception.

300+ million people, not everybody is a fat fast food eating slob.

some of us are fat barbecue, tex-mex, and steak eating slobs :)

There’s no misconception when a typical American homemade meal consist of either a readymade frozen TV dinner, Rom'n Noodles, some Baked Beans reheated out of a tin can along with some Spam to go with that and perhaps some Mac and Cheese on the side out of a ready to serve carton to go with that.

Poland has GOT to start using more BBQ sauce. So much good meat over there, it's the missing ingredient.

Perhaps some of the A1 steak sauce too? Some of us like to enjoy a good steak without killing it’s natural flavor. Typical commercial to push American product. LOL I'll give you that you sure have your marketing to a T. Even the worst product out there can be sold in america with no problem with that constant bombardment on TV.

Someone on this forum has GOT to point out that the posters claiming to know what is, and what is not, a "typical" Polish or American meal are generalizing so much that, rather than providing the reader with any pertinent information regarding this thread's topic, they are merely revealing their own prejudices.

ShortHairThug wrote:


hahahaha, oh just knock it off already with the "we're so natural" crap. remind me how much ketchup Poland goes through again....

You should be glad someone is actually buying your crap.

I always get a dumbfounded look at Rodeo when I tell them I don't want sauce :) "....but it's free"

Anyway, like I was saying about Maggies in OKC, the food was crap. Just garbage. That's the only Polish place that I've been to in the US, and good riddance.

SHT wrote:


heinz.com/our-food/products/pudliszki.aspx

Poland's pride and joy!

Yep, we’re doing our best to keep you afloat during the hard economic time by buying the few things you still produce there but even that might change soon.

SHT wrote:


well, glad we could help with all that bland food :D

You don't know the definition of bland till you try some authentic American cuisine out of the vending machine.

American noodles
American Steak

Oh yah, I forgot. Perhaps some other American culinary delights such as Cheese in a can? What will they think of next.



And something I would be afraid to feed my dog and you feed it to your kids.

Salisbury steak?


Mac and Cheese dude,a traditional American dish.

this is silly. as if i couldn't post a bunch of photos of nasty crap you guys eat over there in Poland.

To partake in the discussion about food first you have to know something about it, clearly your culinary experiments make me rather think otherwise, and the taste? One can only imagine what it taste like. There's your American food critic in a nutshell.

what culinary experiments have I mentioned.

To Short Hair Thug


and what sort of pie would you like master?


LOL love life, no complaints at all it's very spicy thank you,
any more spice we'll be in the intensive care unit!!!!


No I live in England and the English/American food is even worse!!!!!

Sorry but there are lots of things I like about Poland and my Polish man most definitely, but polish food I only cook it because he loves it !

LOL. I love your sense of humor already.
Actually I was looking forward to a more dramatic response it’s my turn to be a Troll for a day you see, but this explains a lot.


I’m glad you didn’t take my remarks personally (zwracam honor).


A bit more information then I needed to know but then again it’s my own fault for bringing it up. :))


Don’t tell anyone, but the secret to Polish dishes is Więcej vegety i maggi and I’ll guarantee you’ll have much better results.

As to the question Why? Plethora of reasons but none given by the Yanks worth contemplating. I’ve been to the states and can honestly and sadly say it’s been my experience as well. In a well-established Polish communities State side, one can find plenty of Polish restaurants that are thriving, some serving an excellent food at reasonable prices as well as some that are not so great, nothing to boast about in either case. It all boils down to their customer base as well as the owners but in either case not very well known to the greater outside community. This is a failure on American Polonia part and in a way it gives the validity for this thread as they’ve been there for a while now.

When you ask an average foreigner about Polish cuisine you draw a blank, hell vest majority of Poles themselves have no idea how rich our kitchen is. One look through this forum gives a rough estimate as to the extent of everyone’s knowledge foreigner and a Pole alike, (pierogi, bigos, schabowy, rosół, barszcz, kopytka). Very easily explained by who the immigrants were at the turn of the century. As for the new generation of Poles you have at least two generations that grew up on the most basic of Polish dishes due to the reality we found ourselves in, except for a very brief glimmer of hope in the early 70's the shortages of the Solidarity era effectively sealed our faith in our own exposure to our culinary art as the country struggled for the freedom. The question of what’s for dinner at that time was a challenge in itself and putting together a meal an art form. Contrary to what you have may read on this very forum, Poles do like to explore other cuisines and don’t shy away from it but it’s also nice to get back to the familiar taste of your childhood. We’re all guilty of that.

Familiarity and exposure is a number one cause in my opinion closely followed by the knowledge of the food which in turn would generate a greater verity on the menu sustaining more of the same business without really competing with an established one in the area for the same few Poles be it the Old or New immigrants. Poles and locals alike have no idea as to what else can a Polish restaurant offer besides the few items I have mentioned above but Poles are the ones who I would have to rely on to get the business going in the beginning which brings us to the feasibility of such enterprise.

Let’s not forget the fact that certain ethnic foods are much better suited for a fast pace world we live in, prep time, cooking time, ingredients, suppliers, do I have to prepare everything from a scratch or can I use ready-made frozen stuff etc., they all play a role of how much profit a restaurant can generate and still have a reasonable enough prices to compete in that over saturated market. Let’s face it; anyone that ever tried frozen pierogi can taste the difference. If you asked me this question; if I would seriously consider opening a Polish restaurant the answer would definitely be NO. There are much easier ways to make money with a greater profit margin than running a restaurant.

Consider this a starting point in this debate, it’s only a tip of the iceberg of the possibilities that can be explored as to the question of Why Polish restaurants are not present or visible on the US market?, and elsewhere of course or why don’t we see more Polish restaurants now? Could the restriction of travel of the Polish citizens during the communist times also have played a role? Effectively changing the dynamics of our exposure and presents in the Western Europe and US alike for the better part of the last century? Perhaps even explaining this gap between Polish vs. other ethnic food on the market.

When a reader reads the title of this thread his subconscious impression is how inapt Poles are even in the most basic of businesses out there, it was designed that way on purpose to steer this debate in that direction. The readers’ comments for the most part confirm that for me so to post anything meaningful is pointless. For me the course of this debate has been predetermined by the very title of this thread hence the Troll like behavior on my part for which I do apologize.

Let's not forget that bigos is German-Lithuanian ;)

SHT
Thank for your reply


I will definitely try this out !!
I also have to concede that polish vinegar is vastly superior to the English Malt version !

On a more serious note i do agree with your analysis of why Polish restaurants are not more successful in USA.
Most people don't realise how varied the variety of food is and have little knowledge of polish cuisine.
Also there is the factor that good, fresh ingridients plus preparation time don't allow much scope for fast food or retaurant dining unless you have a well established customer base who know and appreciate the food, economics are obviously of importance especially at this moment in time.

I must hang my head in shame because whilst making a very flippant remark, I did not stop to think about
the problems that many poles have endured in recent history! My partner's family were really quite lucky in that they have always lived near the countryside and have had more access to food than many people, they are also lucky in that my partner's mother is extremely resourceful (it's her I ask about recipes and advice on cooking).

Unfortunately the Historical education in this country is rather narrow and most people have very little knowledge of countries outside of the old British Empire ( and not a great deal about those countries).

I think there reason that are few if any established polish restaurants in Britain is largely because the first generation of Poles to settle in the UK after World War 2 were often married to British women and became by 'British' culturally, also post war rationing did not allow for much in the way of exotic cuisine. Variety in restaurants really only took off with the arrival of Asian workers in the late50's/early 60's, most people knew a little about India and were prepared to give Indian food a try ( though I have to say most restaurants serve an anglicised version of Indian food) / similar story for chinese food. Cheap package holidays aroused a little interest in Italian food.

I don't know what will happen with the new wave of Polish workers as they have not been here long, many have come as families and as yet have not had a great deal of interaction with british people, there are certainly a few Polish shops opening in larger towns and cities but whether or not it will lead to Polish cuisine becoming more common place I really could not say!

Regards Paloma.

sht wrote:


i rest my case. i'm not going to say that Polish food way back when, before the invention of the locomotive, was more complex or whatever you want to say about it, but for decades, Polish people have mostly eaten bland, fatty salty meals. that's the polish food of today. i enjoy eating it but there's a reason why it hasn't been as successful as so many other ethnic cuisines in the USA.

in all honesty, i'd love to see a small polish joint open up in my neighborhood. if they could make good plates of polish food for under $10, i'd be there at least once a week but where I live, there isn't a polish restaurant for literally hundreds of miles.

The key word in this sentence is mostly. It is the refrain of all the Polish bashers on this forum and it is wearing thin. You all want to deny that Poland, like other countries has an elite, and this goes for its cooks as well. No one cares if most Poles eat bland food. Most people living in most countries are boring. So what? Polish food can also be quite complex and the thriving Polish restaurant in my part of the USA serves aristocratic Polish food. You fuzzywickets foolishly claim that Polish food cannot be fancy and you are wrong.

Poles eating bland food is fine as the people like it. Besides, it's affordable! 12 large pierogis for 5.50PLN is good value. Why price out the people that eat it? I don't see the sense in that. Food is a basic physiological need after all. Besides, whilst game is not exclusively Polish, it has taken pride of place on many upper crust tables around the country for centuries. Game in Poland is Polish enough to me :) :)

No elite Polish cook is cooking Polish food.

Trust me, I know several, and none of them have any interest whatsoever in cooking anything that resembles Polish food.


You really are trying, but the food served in that place bears no relation to anything eaten by aristocrats in Poland. Keep trying, although as you've never been here, I guess you're basing it on the words of some idiotic "busha" from the village.


It's not Polish food, that's the problem. It merely pretends to be, for marketing purposes.

It all goes back to what is truly Polish food and recognised as such through fair means. For example, if gołąbki truly Polish? I know many other countries with their equivalents, essentially the same thing. Bigos, as I keep saying, is German-Lithuanian. Pierogi could equally be said to be Chinese as they have stuffed pockets too. We should remember that a decent part of our cuisine here comes from Asia. Cabbage, the ubiquitous favourite of many a Pole, was given to the Celts by the Asians then passed onto Slavs.

I think Poles, in my experience through discussions, are too quick to call sth Polish. I have a 'Polish' cookbook but many of the recipes are decidedly foreign or international.

i don't know if this is true. but the chefs on tv don't cook Polish food very often. only at the festive times of year.