On March 1 each Kolache Factory in the United States, in celebration of National Kolache Day and its 40th anniversary, gave away a fruit or cream cheese kolache to everyone.

Kolache Factory is a bakery-cafe franchise which originated in Texas in 1982. The kolache is a pastry that was brought to this country by the Czech immigrants who founded communities during the 1870s and 1880s in several states.

Jumping forward to 2016, Chris and Erin Klein brought the Kolache Factory to Virginia Beach offering 25 flavors of kolaches for breakfast and lunch.

The Kleins moved to Virginia in 1999. Although originally from Kansas, Chris considers, after 23 years, that “Virginia is my home. It’s a lovely state to be in with all of this beautiful water.” Having once lived in Houston, Texas, where kolaches took the state by storm and “where we enjoyed them” is how the decision was made to open a Kolache Factory in Virginia Beach, he said. “It’s an area where we have a lot of military residents,...