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[bell tolling]
[soft music]
For 150 years, Milwaukee's been
a beacon of hope for Polish immigrants.
- Polish immigration isn't as great as it used to be.
So it's our way of kind of keeping it going.
- Go, go.
- Adam and Wioletta Bartoszek work hard
to preserve their Polish traditions.
- This is the actually stuff
you can see on the shelf in the Poland.
- The Bartoszeks opened Wioletta's Polish Market
in 2022.
- I always just want to have something that it's mine.
- My wife's name is unique.
You know, it's pronounced, "Violetta."
Most people pronounce it incorrectly,
but that's what makes it memorable, right?
[laughs]
- Having run a grocery store in Poland,
Wioletta had confidence
she could do it again in Wisconsin.
- My mom, she was panic.
[laughs]
She said, "I don't know, it's a lot of work."
And I said, yeah, if you want to have something,
then you have to work.
Life is not that easy.
I'm proud I'm Polish.
And, you know, I think we are hardworking people.
- The market is located near the same neighborhoods
hardworking Polish immigrants first settled.
- We wanted kind of that authentic storefront feel
in a neighborhood.
I grew up on the South Side of Milwaukee.
And this is about as South Side as it gets, in essence.
- To make the store authentic, Adam tackled the restoration
of an old hardware store.
- I'd come in after work.
It took me about three months to get all the renovations.
It has more of a home feel than a store.
Poland has a lot of history.
Buildings have a lot of character.
But I think it's about as close as we can get.
- Another key ingredient,
Wioletta had culinary experience
in her native Poland.
- Yes, I am a chef.
I want to do something from my country
that just represent me just, like, a person.
- On this day, she is mixing a traditional Polish salad.
- Salatka jarzynowa, it's just like a vegetable salad.
When I was kid, I remember when my mom and my grandma,
they just make every Christmas and Easter.
It was a lot of work because we just chop everything
with the knife by hand.
That's why we don't make this salad very often.
I got some muscles.
It's a lot of vegetable, that's for sure.
And that mustard--
it's not Polish, but tastes good.
[laughs]
Everybody just love it.
We just waiting for Christmas and Easter.
[laughs]
- People like authentic good food.
- The store also boasts
an authentic old-fashioned meat counter.
- Like Polska kielbasa.
Oh, first the smell of the kielbasa.
Yeah, that's what a lot of people just say.
They just enjoy the smell.
- There's a wide variation of sausages.
So everyone really wants to know, what's the difference?
- Anything else?
- From fresh Polish to paczkis and pierogies,
the market attracts both young and old.
- A large majority of our customers
are second, third, fourth generation Polish.
So they look back at their memories
with their grandparents and parents
and, like, relive that when they stop here.
- They just make me happy.
Make me happy.
[speaking Polish]
That's my daughter, Samantha.
[speaking Polish]
We are a Polish family who speaks Polish.
We keep the tradition.
- At the end of the day, for the Bartoszeks,
it's about family, traditions,
and hanging on to that Polish pride.
- I think that that's a good amount, right?
- It's your heritage.
It's something you try to keep
because otherwise, eventually,
there's no one to pass it on to.
- I feel just like I have a Poland here,
just a little bit of Poland.
And success, yep.
That's for sure.
Yeah, we're just dancing.
[laughter]