Wieczorkowski is an upscale polish cafe in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra, but locals simply call it the 'polish place'.
That's because few can manage to pronounce the name.
"We get everything - 'wesel-kowsky', 'wiskow-sky, 'wiz-kofsky'," laughs Kasia, the matriarch of the family.
For the record, it's pronounced 'veer-cher-koff-ski'.
Kasia, her husband and her son Adam opened the cafe four years ago, fulfilling a lifelong dream to showcase the best of Polish cuisine.
"On the day we were to open my first thought in the morning was, "what if no one likes us?! We've just invested all our savings to this dream!" Kasia recalls.
But there was a rush of customers. Their perogies, beetroot soup and cabbage rolls have kept them coming. The business managed to recoup their half a million dollar investment within two and a half years.
"We have a retail side where we sell beautiful homewares that are made in Poland, food products and then we also have our restaurant side which showcases Polish food but with a more modern twist," Adam says.
Kasia and Adam Wierczorkowski. Source: SBS
"It's a bit sexier, instead of just your standard meat and couple of veg," Kasia adds.
It hasn't always been easy though.
"Our biggest issue since day one has been finding good staff," Adam says.
"It's very hard to find locals who want to work in hospitality. We rely heavily on internationals, backpackers and changes to visas recently have impacted us greatly."
However, the family takes it all in stride. They've faced worse hardships before.
"My parents came out in 1966 with me as a baby - it was the height of communism in Poland and my parents were very young," Kasia says.
Beetroot soup, cabbage rolls and perogies are staples of Wieczorkowski. Source: SBS
"My father was a motor mechanic by trade, but coming here, there was no chance of that. So he started off digging ditches by the side of the road, and mum, with very limited English, just went onto a process line in a factory."
"My great grandparents had a small business and they were taken away by the communist government, " Adam adds.
"It's just a constant reminder - even looking at old photos - it makes you want to achieve more and progress forward."
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