Can Lao is running on two hours of sleep and his clothes are covered in a light dusting of flour, but even as chaos swirls around him, the Bridgeport Bakery owner seems calm on Monday: the eve of Paczki Day.

Also known as Shrove Tuesday and Fat Tuesday, the holiday of feasting is akin to the Super Bowl for Chicago bakeries like this one on South Archer Avenue. By mid-morning Monday, there’s already a steady stream of customers picking up orders of the traditional Polish pastry — available here in 22 flavors.

Orders are packaged in red Bridgeport Bakery boxes stacked on two folding tables inside the small space that’s in the midst of a remodel. Michelle Sirk, a 25-year-old temporary employee, scans the rows and hands each customer their box of the doughnut-like sweet treats, which are topped with powdered sugar or chocolate.

“If you’re not going to enjoy now, I’d pop these in the fridge,” she says. One longtime Bridgeport resident says her eight delectable-looking strawberry paczki will be gone before Tuesday even arrives.

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It’s Sirk’s first year working this pre-Paczki Day shift, but like most people around here she’s well acquainted with the bakery. Her grandmother, who is on duty in the kitchen Monday, has lived above the bakery for nearly three decades. Sirk grew up wanting to work in the sweet shop downstairs, but she couldn’t have imagined it would be this busy, she says.

“My feet are gonna run away,” she joked.

Monday’s crowd consists of the seasoned veterans of paczki lovers. Terry Lill is there picking up orders for both herself and her daughter — they favor the chocolate whip cream variety. Chris Kornita opts for the strawberry. Others have ordered the custard flavor. Customer after customer says they have lived in Bridgeport for decades, and they are happy this beloved bakery is still here for them to patronize.

In 2019, longtime owner Ron Pavelka announced he would close the bakery after some health problems. That’s when Lao, a Chinese immigrant who has lived in Bridgeport for 23 years, stepped in. A pharmacist by trade, Lao was not a baker, but he figured it couldn’t be too different from his chemistry background. By January 2020, the doors were back open at the business he has dubbed “Bridgeport Bakery 2.0” offering old favorites like bacon buns and new, Asian-inspired offerings like shrimp dumplings.

In the years since he took over, Lao has encountered a series of challenges. After making it through the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lao announced he would close in October 2021, citing financial problems brought on by legal fees. But once again, it didn’t take long for the little bakery that could to bounce back. Since early last year, Lao’s shop has been open four days a week, mostly for pickup orders because of the remodel.

But the hardships continue: Inflation has made everything more expensive, sometimes tripling costs of bakery basics like flour and eggs. And Lao has had a hard time finding workers, he said. It’s all forced him to raise prices, but people keep coming.

“People smile when they get a paczki,” Lao, 43, said. “That makes me keep going.”

This week, Lao anticipates they’ll sell 10,000 paczki when it’s all said and done — although he admits he hasn’t had time to tally up all the orders. It’s scaled back from the bakery’s heyday, when they’d move north of 25,000 pastries on Paczki Day to devotees lined up for blocks.

In part, the decline is because Lao has limited the number of orders during the ongoing renovation, meant to give the bakery a more modern feel. The neon sign that long hung in the front window is gone, replaced by a new “2.0” version near the register.

On Monday, the doors closed for the day at 1 p.m., but inside, the work only ramps up. Just 11 hours until the “open” sign flips back on. When the clock strikes midnight, it’s Paczki Day in Chicago and Bridgeport Bakery is open for business.

Courtney Kueppers is a digital producer/reporter at WBEZ. Follow her @cmkueppers.