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Sausage House Market will open soon at 4204 S. Florida Ave., Suite H, in Lakeland.
Owners, Piotr and Dariusz Kotarowski, are carefully curating high-quality products for their shop, but they said there is an even more important ingredient: “It’s also tradition. We are Polish.”
Grand opening: Saturday at 10 a.m.
Regular hours:
- Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
- Saturdays from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
- Monday closed
The brothers were born and raised in Kielce, Poland, a city between Warsaw and Krakow. Dariusz moved to the U.S. in 1991 and Piotr in 2004.
Sausage House Market will offer small-batch and house-made sausages, pierogies and deli meats like mortadella, bologna, ham, poledwica and smoked bacon.
Dariusz said their authentic kielbasa will taste better than anything found in local grocery stores. “I truly believe that once someone is going to try, you will never go back because the taste of it is just so unique and so good,” he said.
The market will offer prepared meat and cheese platters, house-made steak burgers and fresh Italian sausage, alongside other Polish products, like gourmet chocolate, pasta, pickles and Ziaja goat’s milk skin care — one of Dariusz’s wife’s favorites.
They also hope to sell a Polish cheese called oscypek. “It’s a very heavily protected recipe,” Dariusz said. “It can only be made down [in] Southern Poland … in the mountains.”
The shop will carry products from other European countries, too, like spaetzle, noodles, jam, sauerkraut, mustard, tea and butter.
Piotr and Dariusz will begin stocking the shelves soon and hope to open by the end of the month.
Bringing traditions to Lakeland
Before moving to Lakeland, Piotr, 43, worked for more than 20 years at Morscher’s Pork Store, a Polish and German butcher shop in Queens, New York. For the last 10 years, he was one of three partners in the business. Morscher’s was a staple in the Ridgewood neighborhood for over 70 years until it closed in February 2024 due to rising rent costs.
Dariusz, 54, previously worked in the automotive industry in Connecticut before relocating his family to Lakeland.
Piotr moved to Lakeland to support his son, an aspiring pilot, who attends Central Florida Aerospace Academy. But he and Dariusz were also drawn to the city’s support for local businesses. “The people [are] looking for the small, unique stores. So we will be one of them,” Piotr said.
The brothers spent eight months looking for the right location. Besides plumbing and electrical work, they did the majority of renovations themselves. They hung a sign reading “masarnia,” meaning meat store or butcher in Polish, over the counter in the Lakeland shop. It previously lit the front window at Morscher’s.
A proper kielbasa
“Polish tradition was always kielbasa. It’s like a staple food in Poland,” Dariusz said. “A lot of people, they had their own recipes from [a] grand, grand, grandmother, and they cherished those recipes.”
Piotr has a very old recipe that suppliers will follow to make the shop’s kielbasa. The brothers said the perfect Polish sausage is a combination of high-quality meat and the right blend of spices — even water can affect the taste.
There’s a proper way to prepare and serve kielbasa, according to Piotr: grilled for five or six minutes per side, with a slice of bread and mustard. Add “a glass of red wine or ice cold beer,” he said, “and you’re good.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include grand opening details and hours.
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