Posted by Michael Stern on October 29, 2009
Weikel’s is a good candidate for the least-likely place to find exemplary Roadfood. It is a convenience store attached to a gas station, and at first glance when you walk in, it looks like any other quick-shop highway mart: lots of soda, candy, pre-fab sandwiches, and sundries for sale.
But stroll to the left and there is the bakery case. Actually, several bakery cases. And in these cases are some spectacular pastries, made on the premises by expert bakers. Here you find cinnamon rolls, strudel, cream cheese pound cake, pecan sandies, and cookies of all kinds, plus a repertoire of a dozen kolaches. The kolache is Weikel’s specialty, the shop’s motto (on the highway billboard): We got’cha Kolache.
Kolaches, a Czech-ancestored little pastry that is like a Danish, but with softer, sweeter dough and with better blobs of filling in the center, first got popular in the Texas Hill Country, but now are found throughout much of Texas. There are countless variations, but if you are a first-timer, we recommend the Old World classic -- poppy seed. Other traditional varieties include prune, apricot, and cream cheese.
Weikel's has more good-looking cakes and pastries on the shelf than we ever have had appetite to sample, but we must recommend one more specialty of the house: Weikel’s pig-in-a-blanket. It is a taut-skinned, rugged-textured kielbasa sausage fully encased in a tube of tender-crumb bread that is finer than any hot dog bun we’ve ever eaten.
Overall: Worth driving from anyplace
17 out of 17 people found the review helpful. Was it helpful to you?
Reviewers "Must Eats" List
kolache
($2.00)
pound cake
($3.00)
pig-in-blanket
($3.00)
"A fresh apricot kolache: the tenderest dough, the fruitiest filling."
Michael Stern
"Although it is located in a gas station convenience store, Weikel's makes what may be the best kolaches in Texas ... and that's no small accomplishment in this Czech-ancestored part of the state."
Michael Stern
"Six of the morning's repertoire, still a bit warm from the oven"
Michael Stern
"Prune is one of the favorite Old World fillings. It is only minimally sweet, but maximally delicious."
Michael Stern
"This savory kolache, known as a pig-in-a-blanket, is sweet dough wrapped around a chewy hunk of good Texas sausage."
Michael Stern
"Sometimes there are other flavors than these, and often the most popular flavors are gone by mid morning. You can secure what you like by calling ahead or ordering your kolaches via Weikel's web site."
Michael Stern
"Behind Weikel's counter is a television that shows a video about kolaches being made."
Michael Stern
"It's hard not to like a restaurant with a motto."
Michael Stern
