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Kolaches
Traditional soft Czech pastries, baked throughout the day with sweet fruit, cream cheese, poppy seed and seasonal fillings—plus hearty savory selections.
Handcrafted · Sweet · Savory
The House of Janíček
From Moravia
to Breckenridge.
A Janíček family story carried from the mountain villages of Moravia to the Czech communities of Central Texas—and now into the heart of Breckenridge.
From The Villages Of Moravia
Long before Colorado Czech Company, before Texas and before Breckenridge, our story began among the forested mountains and old villages of Moravia.
In 1872, Jan “John” Janíček was born in Horní Bečva, a village in the Beskid Mountains of eastern Moravia. Albina Repka was born in nearby Leskovec in 1889. They carried their traditions across the ocean and began a new life in Texas, where they married in Bell County on March 28, 1907.
Together, John and Albina raised nine children, including Emil Henry Janicek, born in Burlington, Texas, in 1921. Though an ocean separated them from Moravia, their home remained unmistakably Czech. They continued to speak and write the language, prepare the foods they remembered, and fill family gatherings with Czech music and traditions. What they carried from the old country was not left behind—it became the inheritance of every generation that followed.
Two Family Lines Become One
A second family journey was unfolding nearby. Anna “Annie” Mucha was born in Leskovec in 1885 to Jiří Mucha and Rozina Srněnský. Frank Joseph Stanek was born in Bohemia in 1876. Like the Janíček family, they crossed an ocean, settled in Texas and built a new life far from the lands of their birth.
Frank and Annie married in Bell County on July 11, 1916. Their daughter, Marie Rose Stanek—later Marie Stanek Janicek—was born in Ratibor, Texas, on April 12, 1917.
On December 27, 1941, the two family lines came together when Marie married Emil Henry Janicek, who served his country as a medic during World War II and the Korean War. Their marriage united more than two people. It joined the Janíček–Repka and Stanek–Mucha stories—families who had left the villages of Moravia and Bohemia, crossed the Atlantic and planted their roots in the Czech farming communities of Central Texas.
The Heart Of The Story
My grandmother, Marie Stanek Janicek, carried her heritage in the most enduring way she knew: through her kitchen.
She taught our family to make kolaches and the Czech foods she had learned from the generations before her. Dough was mixed by hand, and recipes were remembered by touch and instinct. Around her table, our whole family gathered. Beyond it, we were surrounded by a large and deeply connected Czech community, where families celebrated together and the language, food, music and customs of the old country remained part of everyday life.
What my grandmother passed down was more than a recipe. It was the feeling of family gathered together. It was the aroma of warm bread filling the house. It was hospitality, perseverance and the quiet understanding that food can carry a family’s history long after borders have changed. Those lessons became our inheritance.
From The Carpathians
Horní Bečva lies within Moravian Wallachia—Valašsko—a rugged region shaped by the Carpathian Mountains and the traditions of the Vlach shepherd people who moved through the Balkans, Romania and eastern Moravia centuries ago.
The greater Carpathian world is a place of mountain villages, ancient customs and stories carried across generations. Farther along that same Carpathian arc lies historic Wallachia, the realm once ruled by Vlad III—the 15th-century prince whose life later inspired the legend of Dracula.
It is a history filled with migration, resilience, folklore and mystery—and it forms part of the remarkable cultural landscape from which our Moravian ancestors came.
The Journey Continues
More than a century after John Janíček and Albina Repka began their American life in Texas, the family story has found a new home in the mountains of Breckenridge.
As Marie Stanek Janicek’s only granddaughter, I continue our family tradition in Breckenridge. Through the kolaches I bake, I preserve the recipes, memories and traditions passed down through generations, bringing the warmth of my grandmother’s kitchen to a new generation.
The House of Janicek crest, our traditional colors, handmade kolaches, Czech food, properly poured side-pour beer with its creamy wet foam, and the joyful sound of live polka and traditional Czech music during après hours are more than details of this place. They are pieces of our family’s life—memories, traditions and love carried across generations. We have brought them together here so that what shaped us will continue to live, and so that everyone who walks through our doors can feel welcomed into our family. This is our story, our heritage and our heart—and it is our joy to share it with you.
Every kolache carries the warmth of a grandmother’s kitchen. Every Czech song recalls the villages our ancestors once called home. And every person who walks through our doors becomes part of a journey that began in the mountains of Moravia and now lives again in the heart of Breckenridge.
“Vítejte. Welcome to the House of Janicek.”
— The Janicek Family
