Today we’d like to introduce you to Vanessa White and Casey White.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Vanessa. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Our grandfather (our Jaju) started a Polish deli in Western Massachusetts with his siblings about sixty years ago. They made pierogi, golabki, kielbasa, and other Polish specialties. Growing up, we always had their pierogi in our freezers, and when we moved to Boston for school and work, our mother would stock our freezers with our family’s pierogi. We started hearing murmurs from roommates like, “Hey, where did you get those?” They were used to buying Mrs. T’s or finding them at Trader Joe’s. We thought to ourselves, “Someone really needs to start a pierogi business in Boston.” It was always one of those ideas that you’re not sure whether to pursue or not. A few years passed with the idea always in the back of our head, until winter 2015, when we decided to go to our family store (still in business and run by our uncle) and dig up our grandfather’s recipes. We worked for several months on Vanessa’s kitchen table, tinkering with the recipes and developing our own. We gave bags of samples to friends and sent out surveys. Then, in December 2015, we approached a local deli about renting space on Sundays. We ended up working there for a year while we still held our full-time jobs and went to farmers markets and events. By the end of 2016, it was unsustainable with our full-time jobs and we took the leap and went full time! We also moved to another shared space in Gloucester, MA, where we were able to obtain a license to distribute to stores. Since then, we have added 100 small grocers and specialty stores and increased our events to 2-3 weekly, as well as increased our farmer’s market presence. We will shortly be opening a storefront in Somerville in Bow Market and just completed our first stint at Boston Calling Music Festival!
Has it been a smooth road?
We’ve lucked out in that we’ve stumbled into great opportunities and partnerships that have helped our business grown exponentially. We tend to say ‘yes’ to most things and roll with the punches. We try to always have a problem-solving, can-do, will-do attitude. Our biggest struggles are finding enough hours in the day to accomplish everything we have on our list, maintaining our outside lives, and being business partners first and sisters second.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We make pierogi for Boston! Pierogi are a very nostalgic food – people are always looking for pierogi that taste like families. We’ve had grown men in tears and people from across the country telling us ours are the best they’ve had.
We work really, really hard. We’ve got lots of hustle. We go everywhere and will always try everything once. We understand that, the more we get our names out there, the more people will try our product and go to stores to buy our pierogi. We are building a brand, one that we hope goes regional and national in the coming years.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
People in Boston are always looking to embrace new local businesses and they have the means to support them. However, I would caution people looking to get into the ‘pop-up’ scene especially, as the novelty is waning and there are constantly so many options. It’s hard to draw people these days. While leadership in cities is generally very supportive of small business, many of the people in administrative and inspector roles make life especially difficult. Every city has a different form, process, fees, and general interpretation of the ‘rules’. There’s definitely need for an overhaul across the board in attitude and process.
Pricing:
- Package of pierogi (6, 8 oz.) – $8 at farmers markets, varies in stores
- Order of pierogi (at events) – 3 for $6 (including tax), mix and match
Contact Info:
- Address: 1 Bow Market Way Somerville, MA
- Website: jajupierogi.com
- Phone: 413-219-6348
- Email: hello@jajupierogi.com
- Instagram: /jajupierogi
- Facebook: /jajupierogi
Image Credit:
Christian Gilbert for most photos except close up of fried pierogi.
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