Pocono News Section

Beating the Line at Leonard's

Beating the Line at Leonard's - Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 7:05PM EST

WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY- Lining up at Leonard's Kielbasi Market. To many in one Wilkes-Barre neighborhood, it's an Easter week tradition like none other.
Ruby Nestorick works at Leonard’s and says, "I don't know, maybe it's the smell, or it's the tradition. Mostly the tradition."

Nestorick is as well known at Leanord's as the kielbasi itself. She serves up the links, tons of them, literally, in the weeks leading up to Easter.

This market has cooked kielbasi since 1923. Owner Edward Balicki says customers keep coming back. "They're still hanging on to these traditions. Economy being as it may, they're going to stay with this tradition of having kilbase for Easter," says Balicki.

Kielbasi is mostly a Polish and Slovak traditional Easter food. Henry Petrosky is Polish and says he won't shop anywhere else Easter week. “We couldn't get it because we didn't put our name in quick enough and when we did we got it from someplace else and it was lousy. I don't even think the dog would eat it," says Petrosky.
Roberta Cebenka says she wouldn't have waited for this kielbase, no matter how long the line. Cebenka says, "It's family tradition. I can remember them making it for days."

Balicki says Leonard's will keep cooking it up until they run out. All to keep a tasty tradition alive this Easter.