Goodby to tradition

One Sugar Creek family can only fathom a single scenario more sad than closing the doors on a family tradition next month.

That’s selling the Kobe House bakery and business to someone who didn’t honor the family’s heritage, and quality of its home-baked creations.

That’s why Joe and Kathleen Woods, and her sister, Alberta and Raymond Bukaty, all of Sugar Creek, will officially close the doors on the nearly 15-year tradition Sept. 20. The family will close the bakery, which began in the same Sugar Creek home where their mother, Caroline (Rozgaj) Kobe, created homemade Croatian recipes that have become the bakery’s trademark.

“It really was a labor of love,” Kathleen said. “And it’s going out that way.”

Alberta and Kathleen still remember the milk, butter and the yeasty aromas that blended to form povitica (walnut bread) and strudel. The smells wafted through the small, three-bedroom home while their mother worked in the kitchen. In fact, such sweet memories were responsible for the family opening the business in the first place. And closing will finally seal the fate of the old homestead, at 212 S. Sterling, another thing that led to opening the business.

The 1934 all-brick home was built by hand, mostly by their father, Michael J. Kobe, who died back in 1975. (Their father was born in the states, but his parents immigrated here from Slovenia, a tiny country near Italy.) In fact, Alberta, who was only about 4 years old at the time, remembers the basement being dug using horse-drawn equipment.

In 1993, the family had gathered to clean out the old homestead, following their mother’s admittance to an area nursing facility. But memories and nostalgia got in the way. As the family searched  for a way to avoid what seemed inevitable – selling or renting the old family home – Joe had an idea. Almost jokingly, he suggested they open a bakery in the house. After all, Joe had retired from Armco Steel and Alberta from the city of Sugar Creek, where she worked as a clerk. Bukaty still remembers her reaction to the suggestion.

“I thought, ‘well, I’ve got to get in on this,’” she said.

So, they launched their business of baking and selling the same goods they grew up with – crescents, potato rolls, and even cabbage rolls. Each dish, created true-to-form according to their Eastern European roots, takes hours of preparation, since it’s all made from scratch. The family uses methods learned from their mother, who immigrated to this country when 5. Their mother, Caroline Rozgaj, learned to bake from her mother, Mary (Sopcich) Rozgaj, back in the old country of Croatia. Techniques include kneading and rolling out dough and letting it rise before spreading a filling of ground English walnuts, honey, sugar, milk and butter on the dough. Then, it’s rolled up, jelly-roll size, before it’s finally baked.

Theirs is a personal business where they know their customers. Walk-ins to their Independence square store at 114 N. Liberty St., usually want to chat about their families and their remembrances of mother and grandmother’s baking.

“Most of our customers are not in a hurry,” Kathleen said.

Even those who order from the Web site, call after receiving their goods, especially during high-volume seasons, such as Christmas. Many have Eastern European roots themselves, and their own coordinating family stories to share.

Although the business began in the family homestead, the three noticed that exposure in Sugar Creek was lacking. So, about 18 months ago, they moved the business to the Independence Square, where they had increased visibility. That move led to a higher sales volume. To increase sales further, the owners also started a Web site and began selling on the Internet. And, they started accepting wholesale orders to high-line, specialized grocery stores.

Last Christmas, the new strategies led to such brisk sales that Joe and Kathleen, who have been running the business since Alberta started scaling back her involvement, could barely keep up. The couple worked 18-hour days, making last Christmas a blur of baking, packaging and delivering.

Joe recalled that when he first voiced the idea for the business, he vowed to know when to call it quits.

“Well, last Christmas was in no way fun,” he said.

That’s when the couple started thinking about closing their store.

“It finally is just too much,” Kathleen said, adding that she is 65 and Joe, 67. “There are other things we want to do,” she said, dreaming about retirement. The couple has a son, daughter-in-law and three small grandchildren living in Virginia, whom they seldom see. A daughter, son-in-law and grandson live locally in Johnson County.

In fact, grandson Pete Latta was only very young when his family started the business. He grew up watching as they baked the traditional foods, said his mother and Kathleen and Joe’s daughter, Ann Latta. Ann has helped her parents throughout, especially in the early years of the business.

“My son has learned how to bake the bread, but most teenagers don’t know how,” said Ann of her son, who’s now a senior in high school.

In that respect, the closing of the business is sad. But, without the Kobe House, Christmas will be a lot more calm.

“I’d like to have a normal Christmas,” she said, “not where we’re baking for everyone else.”

Although the bakery will close Sept. 20, customers already will notice a scale down of products. The couple is depleting the store’s inventory by using the last of the ingredients. But, they plan to continue selling walnut and cheese povitica through the final day.

As for the house, the family plans to either sell or rent. The house could be used as an office building, for a business with little foot traffic, due to a lack of nearby parking spaces.

An upcoming fundraiser is helping to distract the couple from the impending closing. “An Ice Cream Social on Grandma’s Porch” from 2 to 5 p.m., Sunday, at Mike Onka Memorial Hall, 11520 Putnam, Sugar Creek. The event is free to attend, but donations are being accepted for the charity the Kobes established in memory of their mother, Grandma’s Alzheimer Fund. The fund is administered through Truman Heartland Foundation, and awards money to area nursing facilities who take Alzheimer’s patients. The foundation has garnered $250,000 during its existence, Kathleen said.

A silent auction for Grandma’s Purse will feature items including one of Caroline’s purses. Raffle tickets allow winners to take a chance to dip their hand into the old purse and draw out a coin purse with varying amounts of money.

The drawings will be awarded about 3:30 p.m. Sunday. A silent auction table will feature about a dozen items, including wine, toys, dinner gift certificates. They also will auction two crocheted doilies, hand-made by Joe’s mother, Christena Woods of Sugar Creek. She was 90 years old at the time, and has since celebrated her 104th birthday, and lives at The Groves Care Center in Independence.

The Kobes also will focus on their continued wholesale operation, at least for a while. Although they try to busy themselves with the daily chores of the closing and the fundraising event, the they admit that Sept. 20 will be a bitter-sweet ending.

Kathleen summed it up: “It’s another little piece of our heritage that’s gone.”