Smoked Polish-style pork sausage, grilled or pan-fried; eaten in a roll with mustard or sliced into a pierogi-and-cabbage plate. The defining link of Cleveland's Slavic Village.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
Polish and Slovak butchers in Slavic Village smoked kielbasa for the neighbourhood's mill-worker tables from the 1880s. The Slovenian and Polish parishes still run Easter blessing-of-the-baskets with kielbasa-and-eggs through Lent. Today Hansa Imports in Westown and Kuchar Brothers Sausage in Parma maintain the smoked-on-site tradition; West Side Market vendors keep daily fresh links by the pound.
Common allergens: Gluten, Sulphites
Tip from the editors. Smoke the links over applewood for 30 minutes before grilling if you want extra depth.
The West Side Market on West 25th Street since 1912, the 60-vendor public market in the Hubbel and Benes Hall, runs cheap-eat lunches from bratwurst, pierogi.
Try: Cheap-eat lunches from 60+ vendors: bratwurst, pierogi, gyros, tacos
Seti's Polish Boys is Cleveland's longest-running Polish Boy food truck on the festival circuit, with the canonical kielbasa-fries-slaw-BBQ stack on a bun.
Try: Polish Boy: grilled kielbasa, fries, slaw and BBQ sauce on a bun
Prosperity Social Club on Starkweather Avenue in Tremont, a 1938 tavern with wood-paneled walls, runs late pierogi and tavern fare on weekends to 01:00.
Try: Pierogi, kielbasa and tavern fare
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