Locals in Chicago and Detroit know it’s best to develop a plan before Fat Tuesday so revelers can secure the best paczki in town. Long lines, busy work days, and the ups and downs of everyday life can hinder the simple pleasures of enjoying the richly caloric deep-fried pastries filled with custard, cream, or jam. But this year, due to increased prices for key ingredients like eggs, customers will likely be paying more to indulge in the annual Mardi Gras treat.

Eggs play a role not just in paczki dough but also in the common custard fillings. However, bird flu (and possibly price-gouging) has led to soaring egg prices in recent weeks putting pressure on everything from local diners to delis to bodega egg sandwiches. A Polish restaurant in Plymouth, Michigan, Three Brothers, canceled its Fat Tuesday sales with the restaurant blaming “the rising cost of eggs and staffing constraints” for the decision. And it’s impacting other spots as well.

Restaurants, in recent years, have veered from traditional Polish recipes to stand out in a crowded market, with some adding unique touches like giardiniera or cannoli pastry creme. Breweries and distilleries have concocted sweet beers using the pastries in their brews and spirits to capture the spirit of the celebration.

Others, like the crew at Heritage Restaurant & Caviar Bar in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, have gone toward the savory side. For the last few years, Heritage also offers a breakfast paczki stuffed with eggs, bacon, and aioli. Despite higher costs, Heritage is doubling down on the holiday with a Fat Tuesday pop-up where the restaurant will serve two paczki sliders. The team will be up early to make smaller paczkis and stuff them with steak tartare, wild mushroom, and Grand Cru caviar. The other slider is filled with gravlax, cream cheese, and Golden Osetra roe. Co-owner and chef Guy Meikle grew up in a Czech and Polish household and welcomes breaking from traditional offerings.

Heritage Restaurant & Bar

Frying and filling pose unique labor challenges in the kitchen. Meikle says he’ll handle the labor on Monday night at the end of dinner service, with his sous chef, Steph Mateja, taking over later in the night. The price and staffing complications have led to a $1 price increase this year. Heritage will sell paczkis for $6 each, and Meikle feels that still provides a good value for customers.

“It’s expensive to run a restaurant,” Meikle says. “But you know what? We have a cost structure where we put everything through a software program and it can alert us anytime anything changes.”

Heritage is also offering vegan options for $40 per dozen this year. That’s $4 more than what Heritage is asking for a dozen of its traditional sweet package

The Tribune reports how some bakeries are dealing with egg prices. For example, a manager at Olympia Bakery in suburban Hickory Hills estimates the rising costs of ingredients have made paczki 300 percent more expensive.

Not everyone is increasing paczki prices. Zeitlin Delicatessen is holding the line on its Fat Tuesday offerings with a box of six for $25.20. However, the deli had to increase the cost of its egg and cheese bagels, a staple of the regular menu.

Heritage Restaurant & Bar

In Detroit, Erica Pietrzyk, owner of Eastern Market’s Pietrzyk Pierogi in Gratiot Central Market, routinely purchases 90- to 150-dozen eggs a week to make pierogi dough. For the Paczki Day, she estimates that she goes through an additional 45 to 60 dozen eggs that she’ll use for the paczki dough and the creamy vanilla custard and lemon curd. In 2024, paczki cost $36 per dozen, and this year she’s raised the prices to $39: “Really, I should have raised it by $5 but I feel bad,” Pietrzyk says. “It’s not like we have a huge profit margin off of paczki. It’s more or less that we do it out of tradition.”

Pietrzyk focuses on small batches unlike other paczki makers in metro Detroit that deal in high-volume sales. She says preorders are also down. At this time, she regularly sees 80 to 100. This year, preorders are down to about 50. Perhaps the trend could be attributed as a sign of the times as consumers are forced to tighten their belts as costs continue to rise. Pietrzyk counts Polish food as one of those international cuisines that doesn’t receive respect with customers refusing to pay higher prices. She hopes customers realize not every paczki is the same.

“Sometimes, when you go places and it does cost less, they’re either not making it traditionally, or they’re just taking a jelly doughnut and shoving it in a box and slapping the word paczki on it,” Pietrzyk says.