Taylor Tobin

If you live in Central Texas, then you definitely have a strong opinion of Interstate 35, the highway that runs from Laredo in the south to Gainesville in the north, connecting the major cities of San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas. Grumbling about the traffic on I-35 is a legendary Texas tradition, but on the bright side, there’s some high-quality eating to be done in the small towns right off of the exits. One such town is West, a community of just 2,500 people located right off of I-35, an hour south of Dallas, that holds the well-earned reputation as the unofficial kolache capital of Texas.  What is a kolache? Kolaches hail from the present-day Czech Republic and typically consist of a semi-sweet, yeasted pastry dough baked with a fruit filling. In Texas, you’ll also find pastry rolls filled with sausage, cheese and peppers labeled as ‘kolaches.’ Technically, these savory variations are called klobasneks, but because they’re made with the same dough as sweet kolaches, Texan bakeries group them together.  Kolaches in Texas serve as the ultimate convenience food. Since they’re easy to eat while on the move, you’ll often see kolache counters at gas stations and convenience stores. How did kolaches come to Texas? In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a large number of Czech immigrants settled in Texas, and the regions where they developed their communities became known as the “Czech Belt.” While the Czech population has since thinned out in this area of the Lone Star