On 12 February 2026, the queue at Pracownia Cukiernicza Zagoździński on Górczewska Street in Warsaw began at 2 a.m. WP Wiadomości spoke with other customers who arrived at 4:30 and 5:15. On Poland's Fat Thursday, the city's day began before the doughnuts were ready.
One woman said she was buying forty pączki for her son's school. The custom holds that eating at least one pączek on Fat Thursday brings good fortune, so purchases extend well beyond an individual's breakfast. Large orders carried to schools and workplaces turn the line into delegated waiting for whole groups. The first person in the 2 a.m. queue was not necessarily waiting for one pastry, but for a share of the day's tradition large enough to take back to a community.