Farmers Weekly Review

By Nick Reiher

As the Thanksgiving holiday approached, Kathy Kirby has been gearing up for orders of pies, cakes and cookies, the way she has for the past 35 years as owner of Kirby’s Korner Bakery.

And, as usual, those orders generally don’t come in until several days before.

“People will look at the calendar and say, ‘Oh, next week is Thanksgiving. I’d better put in my order.’”

But today, when they see the sign out front of the shop in the two-tenant duplex at 165 S. State St. in Manhattan, those seeking homemade goodies for the holiday likely won’t drag their feet much longer.

Kirby is closing the bakery as of 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 27. As usual, she likely will be making pies late into the night the day before for customers’ holiday tables. The shop will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 29, to sell the remaining bakery and supply goods.

She has had a “for sale” sign up for a couple years, wanting to spend more time with her grandchildren – three in Tennessee and two in Plainfield. And getting to sleep in more than an hour or so on Sundays, the only day she has allowed herself some rest in more recent years.

When a co-worker injured herself a couple weeks ago, Kirby said it was time to close up.

“I just can’t do 12-hour days anymore like I did when we first opened,” she said.

That was in 1989, in a small shop now occupied by Kraus Cable. Her kids, Kelly and Jim, were pretty young then. She said they remember the big sink she had to use in that little shop.

“I think we had only two tables.”

Not the bakery!

Kirby hadn’t planned on operating a bakery; heck, she didn’t even plan on working in one.

She enjoyed cooking and baking at home, and home economics at Hinsdale South (“We lived in the part of Hinsdale near the old racetrack at I-55 and Route 83. Not the fancy part.”)

But when she took a job at a grocery store in Tinley Park to help support her new family in the late-1970s, she told them she’d work anywhere “except the meat department and the bakery.

“I didn’t want to be around all those baked goods all day. … But a few months later, they had an opening in bakery, and it paid more. In a month and a half, I became assistant manager. After five months, I was the manager.”

Kirby already had begun culling bakery recipes here and there, but she was able to pick up even more working with the food distributor for the grocery store.

She began bringing some of the goodies she made to Bingo nights at St. Joseph’s Parish, where her kids attended school.

She’ll Take Manhattan

“I would buy them from the store, and they would mark them up at church and sell them,” she said.

“One day, my friend Jane McCoy said my baked goods were so good, I should open my own bakery. About that time, my husband injured himself at work. So, I thought it was a good time to do it.

“Everybody thought I was crazy to open in Manhattan. It was so small. But back then, this (pointing out the window to Route 52) was a truck route. We got a lot of truckers in here. One would stop for cookies on his way through to Canada, and eat them at another rest stop.

“The village doesn’t want trucks on 52. They’ll ticket the longer trailers. We still get a few truckers in here.”

Back in 1989, a lot of her clientele was farmers who wanted to grab a treat before heading out to the fields for the day.

“They’d say, ‘But, you’ll let us in early, right?’ So, I started opening up a little earlier. Now, we don’t see people in here sometimes until 9 a.m.”

Kirby also remembers farmers’ wives coming in to pick up lunch to bring out to the fields. She or one of her employees even would help out now and then.

Even though the village has grown quite a bit in 35 years, Kirby said it hasn’t necessarily improved business.

“The village was smaller then, but more people shopped locally,” she said. “Now, everyone is heading out to work out of town, or they’re taking their kids to out-of-town sports activities. That used to be all in town.”

Throughout the years, Kirby and her staff kept cranking out delicious, fresh-made breads, cakes, cookies, pies and elephant ears, all in view of the customers at the counter and those who occupied the nicely-clothed tables nearby.

There was a time when Kirby and her employees would get up early or stay late to prepare goodies for baking.

“Until the riverboats came in,” she said, adding her car got crashed into by some early-morning revelers on the way home from the boats, and even one of her employee’s cars was hit by a driver who had a bit too much to drink.

“So, we said, no more driving in the dark,” she said.

Kirby began offering sandwiches when a customer saw her eating one day. “We decided to make some croissants.” They already had the bread, so sandwiches were easy.

Growing and Growing … Until

Kirby’s added catering, which opened people’s tastebuds to her homemade lasagna, and they provided cakes, cookies and bag lunches for too many schools to count in Manhattan, Elwood, Wilmington, New Lenox, Monee and other towns within a 50-mile radius.

As with many smaller businesses, COVID changed the landscape for the bakery, she said.

“It was terrible. I’d look out the window, and it was like a ghost town. No cars on the road. It was scary.”

So was the higher cost of ingredients once the economy opened up again following the pandemic. Eggs, milk, flour – all rose in price, cutting into an already tight profit margin for a small business.

Some customers not used to a small town bakery also may not have been used to baked good made with no preservatives.

“People are starting to get the idea now that preservatives aren’t good for them. I remember when my daughter went to college. She called me and said, ‘Mom, the wrapper on this bread said it’s good only until … So, is it still good?

“She had never had store-bought bread. Kids would come in for their science projects and get bread that could go stale so they could study mold.”

Kirby said she tried to find a buyer who would keep the bakery, even the name, but there were no takers.

“It’s kind of sad, but I’m glad in a way, because I wouldn’t want to worry about someone else having failing here, you know what I mean?”

You Never Know

Kirby said she’ll miss the people when she hangs up the apron for good. Older customers, like the son of the man who forked over the first dollar, and newer ones who have just moved to town and found a rare jewel.

“A lot of new people have come in here, and they are just wonderful. They came in for Irish Fest or other events.”

Never one to sit idle for long, Kirby said she doesn’t have any idea what she’ll do in retirement.

“Maybe get a job, 20 hours a week where I don’t have to worry about payroll.”

And not in a bakery. Reminded that’s what she said as her career as a baker began, Kirby offered a wry smile.

“God has a sense of humor.”

Nick Reiher is editor of Farmers Weekly Review.

Kathy Kirby and her husband Jim pose with a framed story from the former Manhattan American announcing the new bakery in 1989.