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Alexa Lim: So, you know when you’re a kid, a lot of times it’s the little things, the small things that make a big impression. And there’s a lot of childhood foods that can do that, remind you of a certain time. Maybe it was getting a Slurpee on the way to the pool with your friends, or a certain snack that your mom always gave you after school. For me, there’s this one pastry that always reminds me of road trips. I grew up in San Antonio, so my parents would pile us into the suburban, and there were usually two options: drive to Houston to visit family, or up through the hill country up to Austin. And the other thing that is also really true when you’re a kid is that road trips are pretty much the worst activity out there. Like, four hours in a car? It’s almost painful. So to break up the hours of driving, we’d usually stop off in these tiny towns along the way. And they had names like Moravia and Praha. There were meat shops and restaurants with names like Little Gretel. There was definitely an old-world vibe to these towns, like you had left the Texas countryside and were transported to Eastern Europe. And usually, there was also a bakery. And this is where you would find these pastries. The kolache. A kolache is a traditional Czech pastry, sweetened yeasty dough that’s pillowy soft. And in Texas, they’re filled with fruit, cheese, and sometimes sausage. My favorite flavor was blueberry. There are dozens and dozens of these tiny towns with bakeries selling kolaches. And they’re scattered in this really specific area between the big cities of Texas, San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas. And they make up this sort of Kolache Triangle. Even as a kid, I was always curious about these towns and the story behind this Texas kolache.
I’m Alexa Lim, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world’s strange and wondrous places. Today, we’ll travel in search of the Kolache Triangle and visit some of these Czech communities and hear how the kolache became the gem of the Texas roadside snack.
This is an edited transcript of the Atlas Obscura Podcast: a celebration of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places. Find the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps.
Alexa: Before we start, I have to clear something up. I have always called these pastries “kuh-laa-chees,” which is definitely the Texafied way of saying it. In Czech, it’s a “koh-la-ch.” And the city that can claim the title of capital of the Kolache Triangle is kind of up for debate. It probably depends on who you ask. My family, we would go to Schulenburg to get ours, because that’s a halfway point between San Antonio and Houston. Other people, they might point to the city of West, which, despite its name, is actually in the eastern part of the state. West is home to some of the most recognizable kolache and Czech bakeries. So much so that in 1997, the Texas government christened West home of the official kolache. But politicians can be fickle, as we know, because eight years earlier, they had proclaimed the city of Caldwell the kolache capital. Now, Caldwell is one of those quaint Texas towns. The main street is called Main Street. And the downtown square surrounds this towering granite courthouse. The population, just under 5,000. And there’s probably one thing that puts Caldwell on the Kolache Triangle map. Every September, around 15,000 people come to Caldwell for just one day to attend the kolache festival. And the kolache festival is basically a big celebration of all things kolache. There’s a bake-off, eating competitions, a kolache queen is crowned. But once the festival packs up, that doesn’t mean the kolaches leave with it. There are a handful of scratch bakeries in town that make the pastries year-round.
Christine Campbell: I’m not a huge sweets person. I can go a whole—baking thousands and thousands of them without eating one. But then when I do want one, I can probably eat three or four.
Alexa: This is Christine Campbell. She is the owner of Jake’s Bakery, where she makes kolaches by hand. Christine’s great-great-grandparents came from the Moravia region of the Czech Republic. She was born and raised in Caldwell. And today, she lives on a ranch just down the road in a house that her husband grew up in. And fun fact: their primary business is not kolaches. Christine’s husband runs a business that I’m going to say probably only makes sense on a cattle ranch somewhere out in Texas.