Café Polonia has been Andrew Square Civic Association’s nominee for Boston’s Legacy Award three years running, and for good reason. The Zagat-rated and Trip Advisor-recommended restaurant serves delicious traditional Polish cuisine in a homey, cheery atmosphere that has become a mainstay in Boston’s Polish Triangle. Four years ago, the Biedrzycki brothers defied the odds of Covid-19, taking over Café Polonia during a pandemic, with a passion for keeping authentic Polish fare alive in Boston. They have done that – and so much more.

In January 2021, during the height of Covid-19, the original owner and founder of Café Polonia, like many restaurateurs at the time, considered closing for good. The restaurant had been shuttered for 10 months at that point, and the outlook looked bleak.

Enter Damian Biedrzycki and his brother, Marcin, who approached the owner with a plan to keep the restaurant alive. They had a personal connection to the business. Their mother, Alicja Biedrzycka, had been working for years as a cook in Café Polonia’s kitchen. The Biedrzycki boys would often stop in for a visit and, of course, to enjoy some delicious snacks.

“We asked the owner if we could keep the restaurant and try to re-open it and see if people would come in,” said Biedrzycki. On that hope and chance, the brothers signed a lease to operate Café Polonia. “It took us about three or four months of spreading the word.”

An unexpected twist helped them draw customers. In 2014, Guy Fieri, a Food Network star, had featured Cafe Polonia on his show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. “People saw replays of the show and would stop by,” Biedrzycki said.

Still, when Biedrzycki looks back, he realizes that taking on Café Polonia was a huge risk at the time. Scores of restaurants closed in Boston due to the pandemic, but he and Marcin were motivated by their Polish roots to spare Café Polonia. The restaurant reminded them of home.

“We took a risk to have at least one Polish restaurant in the area,” he said.

In 2013, the Biedrzycki family moved to the United States from Poland. When they signed the lease for Café Polonia in 2021, the Biedrzycki brothers mainly had been bartending at establishments in Boston. For them, running a food operation was an entirely new endeavor, but they were driven by a desire to keep the Polish community vibrant. For Biedrzycki, the urgency was clear. In his view, Boston’s Polish community has been steadily shrinking in size in recent years. “In 2013, when I moved to Boston, everyone was speaking Polish here in the Polish Triangle. Maybe it was due to Covid but there aren’t that many Polish people here anymore,” he said.

Since taking over, the brothers have maintained Café Polonia pretty much as it was, respecting the restaurant’s long and successful run in Andrew Square. To start, they have maintained the restaurant’s distinctive interior, with cheery light, natural wood that the original founder and owner imported from Poland and hand carved. The rustic vibe reminds Biedrzycki of the comfortable, inviting kitchens he would see in southern Poland.

The restaurant’s menu has transitioned slightly. Now that she is Café Polonia’s head chef, Biedrzycki’s mother has made some tweaks. “Before we took it over, the menu was bigger. We had other things like seafood options. Seafood isn’t very Polish. Herring and salmon, yes, so we kept those. But we had other fish, like cod, on the menu. We decided to keep it more traditional,” Biedrzycki said, adding that many of the recipes’ key ingredients are imported directly from Poland.

The Biedrzyckis have added Polish pizzas, which feature a ketchup underlayer – a Polish pizza tradition and delicious! They have made Zurek, sour rye soup, a fixture on Café Polonia’s menu, something that previously had been offered only occasionally as a specialty item. “But people loved it so much we decided to have it on the menu all the time,” Biedrzycki said. Other changes include meat-filled potato dumplings, salmon salad and Highlander smoked cheese, which Biedrzycki described as “a very traditional smoked cheese.”

The menu also features pierogi, grilled kielbasa, stuffed cabbage, potato pancakes and dumplings, pork and duck prepared in several different ways, and other Polish cuisine. Sweet items to finish the meal include chocolate babka cake and dessert pierogi filled with blueberries or sweet cheese.

The Biedrzycki brothers have pared Café Polonia’s food offerings down to a single menu, instead of separate menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  “We wanted to have just one menu and keep the traditional dishes on the menu. We have a small kitchen, and this takes the pressure off,” Biedrzycki said.

Over the past year, the brothers have picked up the pace Café Polonia’s catering, especially for weddings, Oktoberfest celebrations, First Communions, birthdays, and corporate events. Seeing this as a new way forward for Café Polonia, they are developing a special catering menu. The brothers also are working on a new website.

Biedrzycki has an upbeat view of Café Polonia’s future, though he wonders about the restaurant’s physical location. With the boom in real estate development in the Andrew Square area, Biedrzycki said, he realizes that Café Polonia’s current storefront on Dorchester Avenue could get swept into a new residential or commercial project.

Biedrzycki is not planning for that just yet. Rather, he is excited at the prospect of new local development translating into more customers. They may not be Polish in heritage, but they would be Polish in spirit, eager to experience the Polish cuisine that Biedrzycki loves and to appreciate the Polish community he cherishes. 

“We want to stay here because we’ve been here for 22 years now. It’s still a Polish community. It’s called the Polish triangle for a reason. We have Polish businesses, a Polish travel agency and the Polish Club. This location is very easy to get to because we’re by the Andrew Square T station and the streets are not as crowded as the other parts of South Boston, so people can find parking spots.”

For Biedrzycki, Andrew Square is where he wants to be. “I grew up here in this area so I’m very attached to this community. I don’t think I could move anywhere else in Boston.”