A Polish Childhood Built Around Food
The Polish cooking traditions behind Restaurant Relax began long before we opened our doors in Greenpoint. They began in my grandmother’s kitchen in a small Polish village.
Relax isn’t just a restaurant. It’s a way of life for our family.
I remember being a child in Kraków, a great city full of old churches and cobblestone streets. On weekends, my parents would take me by car to my grandmother’s house in a small village. Her cottage had a thatched roof, an old wooden fence and one of those gates that never quite closed properly.
We usually arrived after dark. I remember looking up at the stars and smelling smoke drifting from the chimneys. I would fall asleep, but around four in the morning, a quiet sound would wake me.
A gentle tap. Then the slow roll of a wooden rolling pin across fresh dough.
Grandma was already in the kitchen while everyone else was still asleep. After a while, she would put down the rolling pin and open the door. The chickens would squawk. A cow would give a gentle moo. Then Grandma would return carrying fresh eggs and fresh milk.
She was already preparing lunch and dinner for the entire family. Pierogi. Naleśniki. Potato pancakes. Everything was made from scratch.
The Secret Is Time
When we finally rolled out of bed and wandered into the kitchen, Grandma would point her finger at me, smile and bring me closer to the table. Then she told me something that I have never forgotten.
“The secret is time.”
Everything had to be done patiently. Every ingredient had to be fresh. Nothing rushed. Nothing frozen. Nothing prepared simply because it was faster or easier.
“Everything must be done with patience, or it is not worth doing at all.”
For Grandma, cooking was not simply another household chore. It was how she cared for her family. She understood that good food required attention and that the best flavors could not be created by taking shortcuts.
The dough needed time. The soup needed time. The family gathering around the table needed time too.
Polish Cooking Traditions We Still Follow
Those Polish cooking traditions still guide our kitchen today. We prepare our food from real ingredients and make it fresh because that is how we learned to cook.
Our pierogi are folded by hand. Our soups are prepared slowly. Potato pancakes are made from real potatoes. Traditional dishes are treated with the same respect that Grandma gave them in her village kitchen.
We do not believe that homemade food should be rushed simply to make it faster or easier. It takes more work, but that work is part of what makes the food meaningful.
For us, Polish home cooking is not only about following a recipe. It is about patience, memory and caring for the people who will sit down and eat the meal.
From a Village Kitchen to Greenpoint
When Restaurant Relax opened in Greenpoint in 1997, we brought those traditions with us. The kitchen was now in Brooklyn, far from my grandmother’s village, but the values remained the same.
Fresh ingredients. Handmade food. Traditional Polish dishes prepared with patience and served with care.
Relax is not just a family business to me. It is a legacy. It is my grandmother speaking through our hands. It is the patience behind every handmade pierogi, every pot of soup and every meal we prepare.
It is the most authentic Polish home cooking we could bring with us from Poland to America. Made fresh, prepared slowly and served with the same care my grandmother taught us so many years ago.
That is how Restaurant Relax began. And that is how we continue cooking today.
Can’t make it in?
Order online. We’ll handle the rest.
Polish homemade food, made fresh and delivered to your door
