This Texas Bakery Makes The World’s Best Kolaches

In a tiny Texas town home to less than 300 people, you’ll find a gas station bakery that draws crowds from across the state. You might sate your sweet tooth with a nutty cinnamon roll or taste the ‘world’s best’ kolache. 

Meet Hruska’s Store & Bakery in Ellinger, Texas. People don’t just stop here for gas—they plan entire road trips around it, wake up early to beat the lines, and buy kolaches by the dozen.

World Famous Kolaches

Europe, especially the areas surrounding the Czech Republic.

The name kolache means both “cake” and “little wheel” in Czech. The pastries do indeed resemble wheels, with golden crust surrounding a traditional filling of fruit jams, poppy seeds, or farmer’s cheese (similar to cream cheese).

Generally, the dough isn’t super-sweet. It has been described as “slightly sweeter than bread.”

Over time, savory kolaches also became popular. With a Tex-Mex flair, they can be filled with sausage, cheese, and jalapenos. 

Hruska’s serves sixteen different kinds of fresh-baked kolaches. They’ve been using the same original recipe since 1962—and that’s one reason fans keep coming back year after year, generation after generation.

All the Kolaches are hand-shaped in traditional style, not machine-pressed or wrapped like pigs in a blanket. Because they often sell out early in the day, your kolaches will probably still be warm from the oven.

Available flavors vary, but you might find poppy seed, apricot, prune, apple, cherry, peach, blueberry, and cream cheese flavors nestled inside the golden pastries.

For a salty snack, look for pan sausage with jalapeno and cheese or sauerkraut.

In fact, Texas’s Czech population is credited with popularizing the kolache in the United States. Kolaches have been referred to as “a staple” and “ubiquitous” in Texas. You’ll find them across the States, but the recipe from Hruska’s can’t be beat.

Pro tip: Don’t get kolaches confused with klobasniky, another sausage-filled pastry. Kolaches are always open-faced, and you can see the filling inside, while klobasniky fillings are fully wrapped in the pastry rolls.

Other Bakery Items

Hruska’s is famous for its kolaches, but as a full-service bakery, it also cooks up a host of other pastries. Their cinnamon rolls come out of the oven, a swirling sea of icing-covered goodness. Look for regular varieties and those with raisins, pecans, cream cheese, or poppy seeds.

If you’re on the move, pick up a hand pie. Cherry, peach, and apple turnovers are readily available.

Don’t forget to take home some fresh bread—choose from white, wheat, banana nut, cinnamon raisin, or dinner rolls.

At breakfast time, you can also order freshly made ham, bacon, or sausage, egg and cheese croissants as well as breakfast burritos.

And let’s not forget the old fashioned cookies. The Ranger Cookies are a fan favorite. These classic American “everything” cookies contain oats, coconut, and cereal.

You’ll also find flavors like chocolate chip, pecan chocolate chunk, white chocolate macadamia nut, sugar, oatmeal raisin, coconut pecan, peanut butter, and coconut macaroon.

Hruska’s Roots Run Deep

In 1912, more than 100 years ago, Frank Hruska opened the F.J. Hruska General Merchandise Store in downtown Ellinger. At the time, they sold everything from groceries and medicinals to furniture and live poultry. The business even provided ambulance and undertaking services to the surrounding small town!

In 1947, Hruska’s passed to the next generation—Hruska’s sons. Along with the change came the new name of Hruska Brothers.

In 1952, more than 75 years ago, one of those brothers, Hruska’s son Frankie and daughter-in-law Bessie opened a service station along Highway 71. The family store eventually followed them to the new location.

Many families in Ellinger have Czech or German roots spanning generations. When Adolphine Krenek, a local woman of Czech descent, started making fresh kolaches, her neighbors bought them by the dozen. She made about 540 kolaches a week and they sold out quickly from Hruska’s shelves.

Krenek used milk and cream from her own cows and poppy seeds from her garden. But she wasn’t secretive about her recipe. When she could no longer continue making kolaches, she passed the recipe and the task on to Agnes Polasek.

The recpe eventually reached Teresa James, the 11-year-old granddaughter of Frankie and Bessie, as she apprenticed with Polasek and helped her fill the order.

James took over the operations of Hruska’s in 1995. She added a grill and bakery, which has produced kolaches using Krenek’s recipe ever since.

What is more, Hruska’s Bakery is a survival story. During its long history, it has survived a burglary, a fire, and even five years with no kolaches in the 1990s following legislation that prohibited off-site food preparatin!

The Hruska’s Experience

When you first set foot in Hruska’s it might take you by surprise. It’s no small-town hole-in-the-wall. The service station is a 10-bay complex with a huge interior featuring a restaurant, dining room, and gift shop.

It may not be the biggest gas station in Texas, but one reviewer said: “Before Buccee’s, there was Hruska’s.”

Murals of Hruska’s olden days adorn the walls. Another guest described it this way: “Walking into this establishment was like taking a step back in the far past! The nostalgic toys, candy, and delicious food.”

But you’ll likely be drawn to the glass case of kolaches and other treats at the bakery counter. During the morning “rush hour,” the line wraps well around it.

What should you order? If you’ve never eaten a kolache before, the apricot kolache is considered a classic segue from the danishes or donuts you might be used to. Its filling is both sweet and tangy.

“Purists” prefer the poppy seed filling, as it is truly traditional. Poppy seeds were historically abundant in the Czech Republic. The seeds were eaten during festivals, holidays, and other special occasions, symbolizing prosperity and good fortune.

The filling is made by grinding the seeds and boiling them with milk, sugar, and other ingredients to create a thick, dark, icing-like paste. The seeds provide a rich and nutty flavor with a distinct texture.

You can also select cream cheese kolaches paired with chocolate or fruit flavors.

If you want a rich breakfast, go with something savory. Meat, cheese, or jalapeno peppers, the choice is yours.

Kolaches freeze well, so consider stocking up by ordering a mixed dozen. Fresh or pre-frozen Assorted Surprise Bags are also available. Often, fresh kolaches sell out by early afternoon!

What Fans Say

Hruska’s has an avid and loyal following. They have more than 3,200 followers on Instagram, a far larger audience than the local population.

Reviewers have described Hruska’s kolaches as tasting like “someone’s Czech grandmother spent all day in the kitchen.”

Once you’ve tried the golden, pillowy kolaches from Hruska’s, you might realize you’ve been settling for less elsewhere.

Pro tip: The bakery’s name is pronounced “rhoosh-kuz.” You’ll be in with the in crowd when you use the right pronunciation!

Additionally, the cleanliness of the store is often praised.

More Fun In Store

Hruska’s often hosts events in the spacious dining area of the service station. They’ve had kolache-eating competitions, which draw professional eaters and locals alike.

Sometimes, you can enjoy live music in-store. You might see fellow customers dancing to accordion music in true “Tex-Czech” style. As other times, full bands set up and entertain.

Hruska’s also makes other types of food. Their burgers, for example, have made Texas Monthly’s Top 50 list. 

Hruska’s grill offers other types of sandwiches, including ham, turkey, chicken salad, tuna salad, pimento chese, grilled cheese, and wraps. 

There are fancy pigs in a blanket like none you’ve seen before. Some have cheese and jalapeno, others have sauerkraut. You can even opt for spinach, mushroom, and feta.

There are plenty of locally made shelf stable food items to take home as a souvenir. You’ll find fancy fruit preserves, fruit butters, preserves, pickles, vegetables, relishes, salsas, and sauces.

But let’s face it—you’re here for the kolaches.

Hruska’s is a full-service country store with convenience items and locally made food products, so there’s something for everyone.

How to Get There

Hruska’s Bakery is in Ellinger, a small town in Fayette County, roughly halfway between Austin and Houston. It’s about an hour and a half from either of these larger towns.

Where: 109 W State Hwy 71 | Ellinger, TX 78938

Hruska’s sounds like an unlikely success story: a gas station storefront, an old family recipe, a third-generation family-owned business, and a small map-dot town. Plan your roadtrip, grab a dozen kolaches, and try not to finish them before your next stop!