Unemployed friends combine taste for food with need for paycheck
By Lisa Abraham
Beacon Journal food writer
Published on Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010
If you want pierogies more often than Lent and you aren't satisfied with the grocery store variety, then you may want to check out Posh Pierogies, a new business in downtown Akron.
When Autumn Johnston and her lifelong best friend Jennifer Harrah both lost their jobs at the same time, they tried to come up with something they could make together, and decided on pierogies.
''I knew how to make them and made them all the time, and people love them. We weren't really happy with what we could get in the grocery store, and nobody wants to make them anymore because it is so time-consuming,'' Johnston said.
Johnston's family is Polish and the two are using her grandmother's recipe, with a few twists. They offer potato and cheese all the time, but also have a long list of varieties, including mushroom and goat cheese, featuring cheese from Kent's Lucky Penny Creamery, as well as candy bar, which is filled with chocolate ganache, caramel and peanuts. ''They're quite delicious deep-fried with ice cream,'' Johnston said.
They've been working out of a kitchen in, of all places, the John F. Seiberling Federal Building, 2 S. Main St. in downtown Akron, since February.
They've been selling at farmers markets in the Akron and Cleveland areas, but also sell out of the federal building. They're hoping to persuade local restaurants to offer their pierogies and are scouting for a retail location.
Most varieties sell for $5 a half dozen. If you purchase three dozen or more, they'll deliver for free. For information, call 330-608-0683 or visit http://www.poshpierogies.com.
