After five years of learning the ins and outs of pierogi making, 20-year-old Drew Geer has taken over her former boss's hamburger stand, which also sold homemade pierogi, and opened T
he Little Pierogi and Crepe Kitchen in downtown Wyandotte.
Drew Geer started working at Joe's Hamburgers when she was 15, and on the job she learned how to make the Polish staple from recipes passed down by her boss's Polish family.
When her boss Jeremy Sladovnik, owner of Joe's Hamburgers, decided to move his restaurant to a bigger space on Biddle Avenue in downtown Wyandotote and add a bar, his old space, the one where Geer grew up learning the food business, opened up. On Oct. 1, Geer opened Little Pierogi & Crepe Kitchen at 125 Elm.
"At the time I was going to Wayne County to learn to be an EMT," Geer says, "but it just wasn't what I wanted to do."
After a week of running her own business and spending the days selling out of pierogi, experimenting with new and different flavors and learning about restaurant staffing and such, she says, "I am loving it."
She says a Facebook page she launched the day of her opening "went viral. I never imagined it would spread so fast and bring in so many people," she says.
"We are selling out every day," she says.
Favorite pierogi are traditionals such as potato and onion, farmer's cheese and sauerkraut. More unusual varieties are hitting too: homemade mac & cheese, cherry cheesecake and apple pie. Favorite crepes are spinach, feta, and vinaigrette and mulberry, a mix of strawberry, blueberry and cream cheese.
Geer plans to keep the 14 or so flavors a mix of traditional and "crazier" on the menu at all times. An Oreo cream pierogi and breakfast crepes are in development.
She runs the cozy, 850-square-foot spot with seats for 16 from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. A cheerful yellow and white awning and pressed tin tiles decorate the eatery. The menu is on a chalkboard.
Source: Drew Geer, owner, Little Pierogi & Crepe Kitchen
Writer: Kim North Shine
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