Czerw's has been making kielbasa out of a converted horse stable on Tilton Street since 1938. Jan Czerw, a Polish immigrant, started smoking sausage for neighbors and church friends who missed the food of home; word got around the neighborhood and the operation grew from there, staying in the same spot ever since.
The business passed from Jan to his son Ted, and today runs under Ted's three sons, Dennis, Jeff, and John, who divide the work between growing the business, running production, and day-to-day operations. The kielbasa is still smoked daily in the brick ovens their great-grandfather built by hand, and the shop also turns out handmade pierogi and other scratch-made Polish staples.
It remains a family operation in the same North Philadelphia location it's always occupied, built on the same recipes and the same ovens for three generations.
The business passed from Jan to his son Ted, and today runs under Ted's three sons, Dennis, Jeff, and John, who divide the work between growing the business, running production, and day-to-day operations. The kielbasa is still smoked daily in the brick ovens their great-grandfather built by hand, and the shop also turns out handmade pierogi and other scratch-made Polish staples.
It remains a family operation in the same North Philadelphia location it's always occupied, built on the same recipes and the same ovens for three generations.