Zofia’s Kitchen’s everything bagel pierogi are stuffed with cream cheese, scallion, and everything seasoning. Photograph courtesy Zofia’s Kitchen.
Chef Ed Hardy was playing a lot of video games and felt in need of a challenge after Cookology Culinary School in Arlington, where he was in instructor, shut down at the start of the pandemic. So when his friend Nate Reynolds, a Chicago native who works in telecom, asked if he could make pierogi for a socially distanced barbecue, Hardy went all out. Flaunting tradition, he stuffed his pierogi with creative fillings like loaded mashed potatoes with “an unreasonable amount of bacon” or a Chicago dog with all the fixings.
They were such a hit that Hardy and Reynolds, who became friends through the Northern Virginia Foodies Facebook group, decided they should sell them. They’ve since launched Zofia’s Kitchen, a ghost kitchen operating out of Cookology that specializes in twists on