"The Original Kolache Shoppe opens at 5am, which is, ideally, around when you should show up. Opened in 1956, the tiny kolache and pastry bakery sells out of its half-dozen varieties of sweet bread and hearty sausage kolaches nearly every day. At any given time, eight people surround the shop’s central kitchen prep table like a family cooking together at Christmas. Except here they're stuffing kolache dough with sausage, roast beef and jalapeños, and savory pastrami with methodical, assembly line precision. Classic sausage and cheese kolaches have a slim outer shell of sweet, puffy bread, the pastrami gets stuffed into flat, rectangular pastries that resemble crimped Hot Pockets, and sweet layers of raspberry jam are folded into butter-crisp triangles. Staff members skillfully swap massive sheet pans of pastries that disappear just as quickly as they were baked. The Original Kolache Shoppe is an old-school classic for a reason, and one bite of the kolaches will tell you why." - Chelsea Thomas
