There is clearly no shortage of kolache shops in Houston, but you’d be remiss not to take a trip out to the East End to visit The Original Kolache Shoppe, 5405 Telephone Road. The family-run mom and pop spot has been making vintage-style kolache and klobasniky since 1956. It only takes one bite to tell you that these guys know what they’re doing.
The menu is short and simple. It’s also cheap, as the baked goods are around $2 to $3 a pop. You’ll find the classics: kielbasa and jalapeño as well as smoked ham and cheese wrapped in lightly sweetened dough; plump, sweet pastries with fillings like poppy seed, lemon, raspberry, and cream cheese. All made fresh daily, of course.
One major standout is their roast beef number. The pastry can come stuffed with cheese and bacon, but on the day we visited, jalapeños were in the mix—and we couldn’t be happier.
Wrapped in layers of flaky, herb-dusted, and incredibly buttery puff pastry, the Roast Beef Kolache is more like a filled croissant than a typical kolache. In-house roasted beef is sliced paper thin, deli-style and tender as all hell, while fiery chili peppers and gooey cheese add punch and tang. The result is everything you wished a grocery store Hot Pocket would be, and more.
Your breakfast/lunch/afternoon snack never tasted so good.
Visit the East End gem on Mondays through Saturdays, from 6 a.m. to noon, to try it out for yourself.
This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2015.
