The response was immediate.
When Czerw’s Kielbasa announced the death of its third-generation owner in June 2025, the Facebook post drew more than 1,000 comments, and nearly 300 people came to the Port Richmond shop to pay their respects.
Customers laid flowers outside the storefront and shared stories about John Czerw, the man who had fed their families for nearly 50 years.
John was the third generation to run Czerw’s Kielbasa, the Polish smokehouse his grandfather opened in 1938. He ran it alongside his brothers, Jeff and Dennis. Together, they were known as the “Kielbasa Boys” who brought the business into the 21st century.
“He was definitely one of a kind,” said Mike Crouse, who worked alongside John at the shop for many years.
Mike knew John as more than family. They grew up together in Port Richmond and started at Czerw’s in high school, rolling pierogies in the back for extra cash.
His sister Nicole was also John’s partner for 15 years.
“Her world right now is crushed,” Mike said.
All three brothers were co-owners, but John, the youngest, was the face of the business.
“This was his baby,” said Crouse. “He never complained about being here. Came into work always smiling, never a bad day. He treated everybody like gold.”
With John around, there was “never a dull moment,” Jeff said.
During the shop’s most stressful hours, staff remember John bringing his boombox into the smokehouse and blasting polka music.
“You’d hear it first thing in the morning, 4 a.m. Who Stole The Keeshka,” Jeff said.
At John’s funeral, that energy remained. A pickup truck followed the hearse, hauling a 3-foot statue of a pig standing on its hind legs and dressed in Czerw’s merchandise. It was his favorite tchotchke from the shop.
“That day it was like 100 degrees,” remembered Crouse. They had to move the funeral from John’s parish, St. Adalbert Roman Catholic Church, to Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church in Port Richmond. So many people arrived to pay their respects that there was a three-hour wait outside.
Jeff recalled the last time he saw his brother before returning home to South Carolina.
“I left him at Easter, hugged him, kissed him. Said, ‘Love you,’” Jeff said, with tears sparkling in his eyes. “Couple months later, he got diagnosed [with cancer]. Memorial Day weekend. He was dead three weeks later.”
Now, nearly a year after John’s death, his family is still figuring out how to run the business without him, and his customers are still finding ways to hold on.
Mike has taken on much of the day-to-day work at the shop, while Jeff splits time between Philadelphia and his home in South Carolina to steady the transition.
The shop’s kielbasa recipe hasn’t changed in 88 years, and the Czerws don’t plan to change it now. Dennis still handles the business side. Jeff still manages production.
Walk in on any given day, and you’ll find the pierogies John added in the late 1990s sitting alongside pastries, babka, and sauces from local bakeries. Small additions accumulated over the years into something that felt like him.
“Sometimes change is bad, you know? I like old school,” Jeff said.
The day after the shop announced John’s death, longtime customer Frank Zagacki walked into the store.
“He asked if we had John’s last batch,” Mike said. “To this day, he still has it in his freezer.”
