Best Places to Live: Rudy's Strudel's Lidia Trempe Anchors a New Parma

Helping Hand: Trempe grew up in the bakery her mother, Eugenia Polatajko, purchased in 1979. Trempe didn’t plan to run things, getting a degree in international relations from Cleveland State University, but she returned in 2008 to help out for "a few months." Fifteen years later, her smiling face has been a constant presence behind the counter. “It’s a privilege," Trempe says. "I can’t believe I get to do it.”

Fresh Ideas: Since taking the reins, Trempe has kept family-favorite recipes while upping the store's energy. Her annual Paczki Day festival, held every Fat Tuesday, attracts hundreds of early-morning fans in a line that wraps around the block. She invited The Current Year, Parma’s only record store, into the building in 2020. It’s all contributing to the new buzz Trempe has perceived in Parma. “I look out of my front door and I can see a comic book store, an empanada store, and then there’s Twisted Taino, Schnitz Ale; the evolution of ‘What is Parma?’ is this microcosm of, truly, ‘What is Cleveland?’

New Ideas Brewing: Trempe aims to add to the Rudy’s Strudel building in an upcoming remodel, opening one of the only local, non-chain coffee joints in Parma.

Parma Pride: “There’s been a beautiful impact of not white-washing everything and [celebrating] old architecture,” Trempe says. “We have such a cool landscape.” And while she aims to keep that fresh forward momentum moving in Parma, she acknowledges one holdback, with a laugh: “I just need to sell a lot more pierogies.”

More Info: rudysstrudel.com

Find something to love in more than 100 Northeast Ohio communities in our June 2023 Best Places to Live issue.