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All the United States Texas West Czech Stop & Little Czech Bakery
AO Edited Gastro Obscura

Czech Stop & Little Czech Bakery

Some of the best pastries in "the Czech heritage capital of Texas" come from a gas station off I-35.

West, Texas

Added By
Sam Lin-Sommer
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CAPTION
Little Czech Bakery   University of College/Shutterstock
Kolaches   Drew Tarvin / CC BY 2.0
Czech Stop fills its kolaches with everything from traditional poppy seed to new-age Nutella.   Kent Wang
Legend has it that the klobasnek, a sausage encased in kolache dough, was invented in West.   Larry D. Moore.
Kolaches   Andy Thrasher / Public Domain
Czech Stop   Kent Wang / CC BY-SA 2.0
  SemiruralYeti / Atlas Obscura User
  Collector of Experiences / Atlas Obscura User
  Collector of Experiences / Atlas Obscura User
  Collector of Experiences / Atlas Obscura User
  Collector of Experiences / Atlas Obscura User
  Collector of Experiences / Atlas Obscura User
“We welcome you,” in Czech, posted at the check out counter of Czech Stop.   Pete unseth
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About

One of the sweetest diversions in the 200 miles between Dallas and Austin sits behind the gleaming yellow shell logo of a Shell Gas Station. In West, Texas, just past the gas pumps in a large, wood-paneled building, you’ll find Czech Stop & Little Czech Bakery, purveyor of fresh Czech pastries—along with the coffee, travel pillows, and tamales that make it a Texas rest stop. 

Many of the pastries that fill the wide deli cases are variations on the kolache (koh-LAH-chee) and klobasnek (kloh-BAH-snik), respectively the sweet and savory versions of a yeasty, stuffed Czech pastry that is one of Texas’s beloved road foods. 

Kolaches are the pride of the “Czech belt” of central Texas. In 1859, a Czech reverend moved to the state to preach to local German Protestants, seeding a diaspora that now includes more than 200,000 Texans of Czech descent. West, a town of 3,000 people that state officials have named the “Czech heritage capital of Texas,” saw its first Czech residents—farmers drawn by accessible land and a railroad depot—in the 1880s. Today, 75 percent of the town claims Czech heritage, and its residents dance in the Westfest Czech & Polka festival, pray at the Czech Protestant Brethren Church, and buy traditional Czech dresses at a local store.

West is also rumored to be the birthplace of the klobasnek. Whereas kolaches—traditionally filled with cottage cheese, poppy seeds, and fruits—were brought to Texas by Czech immigrants, West’s Village Bakery claims that it invented the klobasnek in 1953 by encasing a kielbasa in kolache dough. State officials have since declared West “Home of the Official Kolache of the Texas State Legislature.”

In the 1960s, Interstate 35 turned the rural town into a highway stop, and 15 years later, Bill Tolk founded a gas-station convenience store called Czech Stop to cater to the influx of travelers. With time, the convenience store’s pastries outshined the rest of its goods, and Tolk expanded the store’s bakery into the adjacent liquor store, adding “Little Czech Bakery” to Czech Stop’s name.

Today, Czech Stop is I-35’s gateway to the Czech Belt’s baked delights, drawing some 600 far-flung visitors daily to this Central-Europe-meets-Central-Texas town. As Czech Stop welcomes visitors from all over the state, so too does it welcome myriad ingredients into its pastries. After filling up their gas tanks, some travelers clamor for the cream cheese kolache the bakery adapted from a local grandmother’s recipe; others for a pepperoni, pulled pork, or jalapeño sausage klobasnek. This is Texas, after all. 

Related Tags

Delicious Diaspora Pastry Sweet And Savory Sweets Bakery Gas Station

Know Before You Go

Czech Stop is a pilgrimage site for people driving between Dallas, Waco, Austin, and San Antonio, so be prepared to wait in line for your kolache. Also, although the convenience store has historically been a 24-hour operation, staffing shortages have forced them to limit their hours from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. as of July 10, 2022. They hope to go back to offering Czech treats around-the-clock as soon as possible.

Community Contributors

Added By

samuellinsommer

Edited By

mamiefish, Collector of Experiences, Michelle Cassidy, SemiruralYeti

  • mamiefish
  • Collector of Experiences
  • Michelle Cassidy
  • SemiruralYeti

Published

July 15, 2022

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Sources
  • https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/west-texas-the-czech-republic-has-your-back/
  • https://www.cntraveler.com/restaurants/west/czech-stop
  • https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-xpm-2013-apr-19-la-na-nn-texas-czech-west-20130418-story.html
  • https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2002/05/12/deep-in-the-heart-of-west-texas/
  • https://jalopnik.com/why-every-texan-knows-exactly-where-west-texas-is-475905315
  • https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2016/november/the-best-kolaches-in-texas-arent-where-you-think-they-are/
  • https://www.westchamberofcommerce.com/discover-our-town/town
  • https://texancultures.utsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/TxOneAll_Czech_Combined2019.pdf
Czech Stop & Little Czech Bakery
105 N College Ave
West, Texas, 76691
United States
31.803375, -97.099624
Visit Website
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Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Texas

Texas

United States

Places 378
Stories 66

Nearby Places

Waco Mammoth Site

Waco, Texas

miles away

Doris Miller Memorial

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miles away

Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum

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miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Texas

Texas

United States

Places 378
Stories 66

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