(La Porte, IN) - People are out celebrating the 37th annual Dyngus Day in La Porte today, with 11 bars on this year’s designated route, and buses offering free rides from bar to bar will begin rolling at 4 p.m.

 

At Dick’s Bar, owner Howie Hunsley said he began cooking Polish food, a long Dyngus Day tradition, at 6:30 a.m. He plans to keep cooking the rest of the day to fill what is always a skyrocketing number of food orders compared to a usual Monday. His menu this year consists of Kluski noodles over mashed potatoes, along with Kielbasa sausage and sauerkraut.

 

Hunsley said he’ll serve as many meals as is allowed by the 180 pounds of Kielbasa sausage, 40 pounds of dried Kluski noodles, 24 gallons of sauerkraut, and 20 gallons of mashed potatoes he had ready to cook before the occasion arrived.

 

Two hours later, “I already went through almost one hundred pounds of Kielbasa,” he said.

 

Shelly Tanksley, owner of Burger Bar & Grill, said she had about three times the number of late-morning customers for Dyngus Day compared to a typical Monday.

 

“This is not so much our regular crowd today. This is a lot of people that are just now getting started early,” she said.

 

Cabbage rolls with mashed potatoes and bread to feed about 400 people throughout the day were on her specialty menu, with orders split between dine-in and carry-out.

 

Tanksley estimated she’ll go through at least three times as many kegs of beer and other alcoholic beverages versus a normal Monday.

 

“We’re ready for anybody that’s thirsty,” she said.