Raddell’s Sausage Shop and Frank Azman Meat Market Earn Titles at Polka Hall of Fame Sausage Fest
Frank Azman of Cleveland’s Azman and Sons Meat Market accepted the Best of Fest Jury Award and Raddell’s Sausage Shop, from the city’s Collinwood neighborhood, scored as the People’s Choice at the 11th Slovenian Sausage Festival on Wednesday, September 10, 2014, hosted by the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum.
Showers did not dissuade nearly 700 hungry music-lovers from enjoying eight hours of polka music and savory sausages at the SNPJ Farm in Kirtland, Ohio. Fifty musicians and accordionists, including the Frank Stanger Orchestra (2013 Polka Hall of Fame Band of the Year), Kathy Hlad (2013 Button Accordionist), and the Fairport Jammers (2013 Button Accordion Group), volunteered their services at the annual fund-raiser for the Hall of Fame and museum.
"I grew up in with Slovenian sausage and polka music, so I just had to be here,” said Linda Poropat Holle, a Euclid, Ohio, native, now living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “It’s a great family event. That’s why I brought my mother.”
Raddell’s was the jury’s runner-up and Azman and Sons Meat Market was the runner-up People’s Choice. As winner of the People’s Choice, Raddell’s prize sausages will be served at the Polka Hall of Fame’s three-day polka dance festival over Thanksgiving weekend, November 27, 28 and 29, 2014, at Cleveland’s Downtown Marriott Hotel.
This was the first Sausage Fest title for Azman and Sons, a 90-year-old, third-generation shop on Cleveland’s St. Clair Avenue. For the first time, a food truck participated at the Sausage Fest. The bold, red vehicle was operated by new entrant Sterle’s Country House, the legendary Cleveland restaurant which now makes its own Slovenian sausage.
Members of the jury were Cindy Barber, owner of the Beachland Ballroom; Walt Mahovlich, director of the Harmonia folk music ensemble; Richard Novotny, Associate Vice President of Student Development and Dean of Students, Lakeland Community College; Deborah Pinter, Executive Director, Orange Art Center; Dan Postotnik, a sausage and polka music fan; and Willoughby attorney Ronald Zele.
“The jury decides by blind tasting while each visitor receives a voting ticket to drop in the ballot box of the vendor of their favorite sausage,” explained Mark Habat, Vice President of the Polka Hall of Fame and Chairman of the Sausage Festival. “Vendors are invited to observe the judging and the ballot count. It’s all on the up-and-up."
The Slovenian sausage is a regional American specialty prepared from recipes brought to the United States by immigrants from Slovenia, where it is known as Kranjska klobasa. Sausages are made with pork, often accented with garlic, and then cured and smoked. More than 1,500 sausages were purchased at the event as well as 800 slices of strudel and potica, a traditional Slovenian nut roll pastry.
The National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum celebrates the city's variety of dance music with audio exhibits, historic photographs and original instruments. The music style evolved in the city’s Slovenian neighborhoods a century ago and became nationally popular in the decade after World War II, especially by America’s Polka King Frank Yankovic. Each year, the Polka Hall of Fame’s nationwide membership nominates and vote for polka performers in different categories. The 27th annual awards ceremony on Saturday, November 29, 2014, at the Grand Ballroom of the Downtown Cleveland Marriott Hotel, is the high point of the Polka Hall of Fame’s Thanksgiving weekend music festival.
The Polka Hall of Fame is located at 605 East 222nd Street in Euclid, Ohio, in the city’s historic former city hall. For more information, check the website at www.polkafame.com or call (216) 621- FAME.
National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum: www.polkafame.com
Azman and Sons Meat Market: www.azmanandsonsmarket.com
Raddell’s Slovenian Sausage Shop: www.raddellssausage.com
Sterle’s Country House: www.sterlescountryhouse.com
Joe Valencic
..