The day before Lent goes by many names: Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday and Fat Tuesday, to name a few.
But at Global Donuts & Deli, owner Gus Pantazis said it's known as "the big paczki Tuesday."
He said to celebrate the day, they make upwards of 3,000 dozen paczki.
"We usually [use] between 27 and 30 50-pound bags of flour over a day-and-a-half."
Pantazis said over the past few years, they started making the Polish dessert over the weekend so that the store isn't overwhelmed on Tuesday.
"So, having them for three, four days, we thought originally that was going to help us but it hasn't. It's crazy on that particular day, but people are happy, they like them and we're happy because it's keeping us busy."
Pantazis said after hosting paczki Tuesday for 30-plus years, Global has the process down to a science.
"We have six people on two 12-hour shifts. So one crew cuts, the other fries, the other glazes and this just keeps going around until the new guys come in, and when the new guys come in, they pick up and they just keep going."
Pantazis said in the first year, he started off with one bag of flour.
"Which was about 50-dozen. They went within like a couple of hours. I said 'no way, next year I'll make two or three bags,' and I did so and they went in like three, four hours. So, it has just grown exponentially," he said. "I've already asked some people out there that are having them right now 'hey, how's your paczki?' And they all say 'oh, delicious man.'"
Pantazis said while they have a variety of eight different flavours -- apple, cherry, lemon, custard, raspberry, strawberry, blueberry and prune -- some fruit jams were harder to come by this year because of supply management issues. Due to that, Global will have limited supply of the prune and cherry flavours.
Global Donuts will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesday.
-With files from Melanie Irwin
