Trick or – pierogi? How some offbeat Halloween treats brought neighbors together

It’s one thing to be known as the house that deals out full-sized candy bars on Halloween. It’s quite another to be known as the house that hands out pierogi.

“I was [at] full service,” said Vanessa White, who gave children and families four types of pierogi in her Beverly neighborhood Tuesday night: traditional potato and cheese; sweet potato and caramelized onion; kielbasa and red bell pepper; and spinach and feta.

White co-owns Jaju Pierogi with her sister, and with Tuesday’s temperatures on the cool side, White said she thought it was the perfect opportunity to get out her electric grill and serve up some warm treats for chilly trick-or-treaters.

“It was funny, because kids were coming up to me, and they were super confused because they were like, 'I just want the candy, what are these?' And I said, 'don’t worry, I have candy over here, and pierogi over here,' ” said White.

White is also the mind behind a photo you might have seen making its way across the Internet over the last couple of weeks — a Halloween bucket full of pierogi, with a cardboard sign that reads "ONLY ONE PIEROGI PER CHILD," riffing off a meme of "only 1 [x] per child."

"My focus for Jaju is to create content that my audience can express themselves through. I was like, 'one pierogi per child.' People will love this and share it, saying, 'we should do this!' Or 'is this your house?' " said White. (Her post has indeed inspired many imitations).

While most of the kids opted for just candy, White said some did end up gobbling up a pierogi. Their adult companions appeared more enthused about the savory treat; she estimates she handed out a couple hundred.

“My favorite line from the night was that people were coming to my house and [say], ‘Oh, we heard about these a few streets over!’ ” said White.

She even donned a pierogi costume for part of the night.

White is not the only local who offering a little trick in the form of an unconventional treat this Halloween. Michael Marotta, of Maynard, said he spent the evening dishing out a few Market Basket rotisserie chickens (alongside full-sized candy bars, of course).

It started off as a joke, said Marotta. He first posted on his town’s Facebook group to encourage people to bring their costumed kids to get some candy at his house, which is at the bottom of a hill and not always sought out by trick-or-treaters.

He wrote, “I wanted to hand out rotisserie chickens but my wife vetoed that, so you’ll have to settle for full-size candy bars.” In a normally-quiet group that has a handful of posts a week, his post “popped off.”

“There were a ton of comments and everyone’s like, 'we want the chicken,' ” said Marotta. “Like, 'I’ll have the chicken.' And so, I started thinking, oh man, I kind of – I stirred this up and I was like, you know what? Yeah, whatever, I’m going to get the chicken.”

"... everyone’s like, 'we want the chicken.' ... and I was like, you know what? Yeah, whatever, I’m going to get the chicken."

Michael Marotta

He headed over to the Maynard Market Basket — “which we practically live at,” he said — and grabbed five rotisserie chickens, posted a picture of the chickens to the town’s Facebook page and set up a station right by the door, with candy, and chickens.

All in all, Marotta ended up handing out two chickens and brought a third to a neighbor’s house, where they were having a gathering in the driveway.

One of the chickens went to a dad with a young trick-or-treating daughter, said Marotta, and his neighbors told him that the dad walked by their house with the chicken and “held it up like Simba and said, ‘We got the chicken.’ ”

Marotta said he thinks that post-pandemic, people have kept to themselves more — not reaching out or even chatting in line in the supermarket.

“I thought it was really cool that the neighbors were talking about the rotisserie chicken” bringing everyone together, he said.

And of course, Market Basket was pleased to hear about Marotta's plans for his rotisserie chickens.

Both White and Marotta said they plan to hand out their respective non-candy treats at Halloween next year.

“I guess I’m the chicken guy [now],” said Marotta, chuckling.