Hruska’s Kolaches

A couple weeks ago I ran into a bunch of haggard looking people wearing shirts with giant pears on them. My foodie senses started tingling and I had a hunch I should know what these tired, pear people were about. Turns out they work at a cute little Czech bakery on Center Street in Provo called Hruska’s Kolaches! They had just finished Kolache Fest 2015—you don’t know what that is right now but in a minute you’ll think a Kolache Fest sounds like the best thing to EVER HAPPEN ON THE PLANET.

Hruska (take a short breath in and say ruh-sh-kuh) means pear in Czech. The Hruska family opened Hruska’s to enlighten Provo on the topic of kolaches. Kolaches (cuh-la-cheese) are Czech pastries that some speculate may actually be the manna that God sent to the Israelites in the wilderness.

I’ve honestly been dying to try these. But because of my schedule (sleep schedule) and their hours (6:30 a.m. to sell out) I’ve been dying for a while now. However, a few days after I ran into the pear people, a friend told me I really need to try this bakery on Center and I took it as a sign and woke up early on a Saturday.

First off, it’s the cutest. And people LOVE it. It was hard to get a picture of the front without people walking in.

Everything is made fresh in-house everyday. They have both savory and more traditional open-faced sweet kolaches. There is a wide variety of kolaches including, but not limited to: blueberry, orange roll, cream cheese, strawberry, bacon and sausage, cilantro chicken, and I heard a rumor the brisket in their BBQ brisket kolache is braised in the oven for twelve hours before being lovingly buried in buttery dough and baked into BBQ perfection.

I ordered the bacon, egg, and jalepeño kolache and an orange roll. Served warm, in a brown paper bag so it’s adorable and adds to the whole ambiance. Don’t those kind of look like what you would imagine a Smurf would eat? It’s just tiny and perfect and nice.

Orange roll kolache experience: Imagine me looking at you sternly, my fingers are pressed together like ducks and near my face. This is the softest thing I’ve ever ate in my whole life. I do not understand how they made it so soft and dreamy. I don’t. I am unable to comprehend the softness of this pastry. Then on top of that—literally—there’s the cream cheese and orange goodness. So, yeah. I liked it. 

Bacon, egg, jalepeño kolache experience: This bread—if you can even call it that—is buttery and chewy and crusty and everything that it should be. I was highly impressed with the balance of egg to bacon to jalepeño as well. With jalepeño, often you find people either didn’t take a big enough risk or got a little carried away. But this had just enough to bring the tones of the jalepeño into the egg and bring a little spice to my life. 

Plus, I got to break it open like it was a gift and this was my sight.

It’s so pretty. I’m going tomorrow. 

Kayla