Unity couple looks to expand pierogi business with Route 981 plant

A Unity couple has drawn upon a shared Polish heritage to grow a thriving business making pierogies for restaurants and fundraisers.

The next step Jan Rawecki and Terry Smith-Rawecki are planning is to move production of Gosia’s Pierogies from their expanded Pauline Drive garage to a larger plant they intend to build along Route 981.

The township supervisors and planning commission have granted provisional approval for a 2,016-square-foot pierogie plant, which would be next to Blackout Tinting, south of Route 30.

The new wholesale production facility will roughly double the space the couple has outgrown, said their daughter, Amy Dent, community manager for the family business.

In 1998, her parents started making the potato dumplings by hand in their kitchen and selling them at farmers markets, she said. They drew upon a traditional recipe Smith-Rawecki inherited from her family.

“My dad is from Poland, and his parents owned a restaurant there,” Dent said. “He wanted to kind of continue that legacy, and my mom has Polish parents who have a pierogi recipe that was really good. They pieced together their skill sets, and it just took off.”

They named their enterprise after Jan Rawecki’s sister, who was visiting from Poland at the time.

Now, though the potatoes are still peeled by hand, Gosia’s weekly pierogi production may approach 4,000 dozen during its busiest periods — the summer festival season and Lent.

Developing a pierogi production line was no easy feat, Dent noted. “When you make it fresh at home, you have control over smaller batches,” she said. “When you have to mass produce it and continue that homemade taste, it is hard to master. My dad has spent many many hours figuring out how to make that dough just right.”

The pierogi line is manned by five part-time and five full-time seasonal workers, and more likely will be needed at the proposed new plant, Dent said.

Her parents, who are deaf, also hire deaf employees.

“Sign language was my first language growing up,” said Dent, who is the designated “voice” of Gosia’s.

In a video on the company’s website, Smith-Rawecki signs that she felt she wasn’t treated equally, because of her hearing impairment, during previous stints as a teacher and geologist.

She said she strives to empower her deaf employees, who are “wonderful team players.”

In addition to shipping pierogies to restaurants in the Pittsburgh region, Gosia’s continues to sell its seven varieties at farmers markets and festivals. The pierogies have taken top prizes at such venues.

“The biggest comment we get is it tastes just like grandma’s,” Dent said.

Additional township approval is needed before Gosia’s can begin construction at the new site.

Unity supervisors will conduct a 2 p.m. hearing Dec. 23 as they decide whether to approve the pierogi operation as a conditional use in the township’s community commercial zone.