Among the many types of small businesses in Kingston, the family-owned and operated ones continue to remain popular. In our town we can find many in a wide range of industries: bakeries, shipyards, manufacturing, insurance, legal, restaurants and news media (including Kingston Wire). I’m always impressed by families working together to run businesses, setting aside potential personal conflicts and maintaining clear roles and boundaries to avoid conflicts or power struggles. This isn’t to say that successful family-run businesses don’t have their problems. And not every family can make such a business arrangement work.

Let’s face it — families can be challenging! But they can also be a source of enormous strength and a powerful asset. Such is the case with twin brothers Tyler and Kyle Krupa and their Krupa Brothers Pierogi Co., headquartered on the Strand in Kingston.

As children, Tyler and Kyle, fifth-generation Polish Americans, learned the family pierogi recipes from their grandmother. By eight years old they started to make them, eventually helping her prepare trays of flavored versions for their family’s traditional “pierogi parties.” It was this experience and love that inspired the brothers to eventually turn their passion into a business, started on a shoestring budget.

Pierogies are a type of food with analogs in many cultures around the globe. It’s believed pierogies originated in China as dumplings and were introduced to the Western world via the Silk Road in the Middle Ages. It became adopted and reinvented in Poland, Slavic nations such as Ukraine (where they’re known as varenyky), and Romania (known as colțunași, derived from the Italian — via Greek — word calzoni). For those unfamiliar with pierogies, they’re dough made of eggs, flour, dairy and olive oil wrapped around a filling — traditionally potatoes and cheese, but they can include many other things. In the United States, pierogies tend to be more on the savory side while in Poland, flavors are more diverse and also include sweet flavors using fruit.

Today, pierogies are increasingly a food platform onto which chefs innovate. While pierogies traditionally are a food more common during the Thanksgiving-through-Easter season, the Krupa brothers make flavors for different occasions year-round. They offer an heirloom pumpkin and mascarpone cheese pierogi in the fall, mushroom truffle in late spring, death-by-chocolate during the holidays, buffalo chicken during football season and others. Because the dough of pierogies is usually thick (as compared to, say, ravioli), they’re filling and may be served as a meal. But pierogies are a flexible delicacy, and often served as a side dish or snack, and are perfect for parties.

After Tyler and Kyle grew up in central Connecticut, they ended up working in the restaurant and food business. At one point Kyle moved to Poughkeepsie to take a job as manager at a local Texas Roadhouse restaurant. It was then that he became enchanted with the Hudson Valley. “The Hudson Valley is really great — it has so many wonderful local sources of fresh products, at surprisingly reasonable prices, and has communities that appreciate quality food. I felt it was the place for us to start a small business.” As karma would have it, Kyle eventually came to Kingston to take a job at the Ship to Shore restaurant, where he fell in love with the area and got hooked. “Kingston is only a half-hour from something really cool — we really love the area, and its diversity and strong sense of community” he added.

To get the business started, Kyle, who handles sales and accounts, initially started the business out of his Port Ewen apartment. He got help from Tyler, who still lived in Connecticut at the time where he did much of the product preparation. Kyle would deliver pierogies to a growing network of restaurants and stores in the Hudson Valley, building his initial client base and brand reputation — high-quality with seasonal offerings. As they found increasing traction with growing sales year after year, in 2022 they took out a lease for space with a kitchen and retail on the Strand in Kingston’s waterfront district.

“We started our business self-funded with about $6,000 from our grandfather’s life insurance policy that he left for us” says Kyle. “From there we recycled all profits to build the company into what it is today, with zero business debt or outside money.”

Both brothers continued to work full-time in the restaurant industry in order to make ends meet, putting in many long days and nights. Even today, they still have jobs on the side. Though there was a local pierogi making industry in the Hudson Valley prior to their arrival, Kyle and Tyler’s passion have upped the game by bringing a new level of quality, service and innovation.

In sharing some of their experience in starting up their business, Kyle said that “the wholesale network is built off of putting yourself and your product in front of as many potential partners as possible. You can't be afraid of hearing ‘no.’ … Knowing we have the highest quality pierogi and a profound passion to the craft makes it easier to sell our product as well.”

While the business does do some advertising, most of their local promotions come through word of mouth and local press coverage. They’ve been growing each year, now making hundreds of dozen-pierogi batches a week. Kyle shared that they are up 40 percent in 2025 above 2024 numbers — hopefully a sign of a very bright future.

In asking the brothers for some advice for others considering starting their own business, Kyle shared the following words of wisdom: “Good things come to those who work hard, find their passion and seek a way to make it profitable.” He also advised, “Don't be afraid to try, to fail and to start over. And surround yourself with people who not only believe in you but push you to test the boundaries of your wildest imagination.”

Raleigh Green is a local business owner specializing in marketing communications consulting and services. If you enjoy this column, please "like" it on social media and share online. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer; they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Kingston Wire Editorial Team.