Buzz Cafe

The Newsletter

Featured Article

Before Buzz Cafe, J.A. Knaak Hardware
was the heart of Harrison St.

By Judy Knaak

The day after Christmas we had a couple of very interesting visitors to Buzz Café. Judy and Bob Knaak, descendants of the original owners of J.A. Knaak Hardware Store, located in the very same building as Buzz Café 100 years ago!. Andrew and I knew some of the history of the building, but very little. Judy was kind enough to fill in the details for us and she wrote an account of her experience visiting Buzz Cafe and a history, as she and her husband recall it. Enjoy!

The hardware store at 905 S. Lombard in Oak Park played an important role in my husband Bob’s growing up years. His grandfather built the building around 1910 of hand-poured concrete walls, hardwood floors, tin ceiling and oak trim. The second floor was an apartment for he and his wife to live and raise their two sons. One son was my husband’s father.

Recently Bob and I visited the old hardware store, which is now the Buzz Cafe. We’ve been married for 43 years and have never left the western suburbs. But this was the first time I had ever seen the building, and the first time that my husband had returned. Sometimes it’s a matter of waiting till the time is right. I believe we had waited just long enough.

We walked through the door to the Buzz Cafe, sat at a table and ordered some coffee. The physical presence of the bustling cafe and its many patrons seemed to disappear as Bob painted a picture with words to describe how he remembered his grandfather’s hardware store.

I noticed the floor first. The old floor boards told a story of long time use but still sturdy condition. Bob told me about the many times he had swept those floors. His grandfather would drop a few coins from the register here and there in that long space for his grandchildren to find as they swept.

The long east wall held built-in cabinets with glass fronts. The shelves and compartments held all the nuts and bolts and doo-dads that people required in the days when they did their own household renovations and repairs. Back then the hardware store really sold hardware and held as vital a position in a family’s life as the corner grocery store.

There was a counter by the front door, Bob remembered. Customers would be waited on here as they would hand over their list of items that they needed. Short lists, long lists. Sometimes questions. The hardware store was also a place for advice and exchange of techniques and ideas. You bought your nuts and screws but often took home something of greater value ... tips that would prevent disaster and wasted time.

The opposite long wall contained shelves to the ceiling filled with assorted paint cans. Bob said that there were two rolling ladders that they would use to retrieve just the right color or style of paint for their customers. Anyone who has struggled to reach what they want in today’s Disneyland parody of a hardware store can appreciate the ingeniousness of this simple solution.

At the far end of the hardware store, where the kids’ play area is now, was a walled off bedroom and kitchenette. This was added for the grandparents at the time when the upstairs apartment became home to one of the two sons’ growing families.

The older son John, my husband’s father, had two daughters, followed by Bob and his younger brother John. Bob’s Uncle Walter had four daughters. These grandchildren of the original owners of the hardware store spent much of their childhood at the family store. The time frame was the 1940’s and 50’s. This was still the era when Males were king ... of everything. Bob and his brother were the only boys in that next generation, and Bob, being the older, was on the throne. I believe his father, his uncle and his grandfather showered him with special privileges, although to a kid, it may have seemed like extra work.

They taught him the “trade” and Bob grew up learning about the sheet metal side business that they operated in the basement. He helped hang gutters on some of those huge houses that Oak Park is renowned for. He knew what all those doo-dads were and how they were used. He overheard or was imparted with the secrets of successful do-it-yourselfers. His younger brother John learned all this too, but Bob was first. It is a subtle distinction that was ingrained in their German heritage.

As time went by, Bob’s father took over the hardware business and eventually shared that responsibility with his younger brother Walter. As Bob grew older, his association with the operation of the hardware store disappeared and was replaced with high school, girls and football. He grew up in a modest home in Glen Ellyn that his father built around 1949, a short time after Bob was born.

If you come to our home, you will see the influence of the hardware store in Bob’s life. We have lived in our brick American four-square since 1973 (I was a very young bride - wink wink). Not long after we moved there, he doubled the size of our two-car garage and added on a second story for storage. As you walk through the narrow winding paths of our overstuffed garage, you will see floor-to-ceiling shelves, tool chests galore, little compartments and jars full of doo-dads, gizmos, tools and equipment in seeming disarray, but actually very well organized and ready for the next project.

Bob not only knows a little about everything when it comes to maintaining a home, but he has a gift for doing everything to perfection. You may say, no, it can’t be perfect or it is not hand-made! Well, I disagree. I am witness to his abilities and his unrelenting expectation of quality.

His brother John also shows the benefits of that same early influence. He lives on a beautiful piece of land in western Tennessee with his wife and runs his own motor repair business. His shop has the same look of organized disarray that is evident in Bob’s garage. They know what they’re doing, and if they are lucky, their own sons will inherit their knowledge and tenacity.

In its time, the hardware store was a place of dreams and hard work. That’s what it took to build the business. That’s what they sold to their customers along with supplies. And today it is still a place of dreams and hard work.

Our experience at the Buzz Cafe was warm and welcoming. Jessica showed a sincere interest in our story and graciously allowed us to snoop around a bit and dust off Bob’s nostalgia and renew his closeness to that time in his life.

The cafe acknowledges and supports and reveres its place in the neighborhood and strengthens the local sense of community. The caring and innovation that sustains the Buzz Cafe is evident. We will have to return to try out that delicious looking menu!

Though it no longer offers doo-dads for sale, it is heart-warming to see that in this building is still a family business that cares about doing it right and about putting people first. May your values enable you to continue your dream and to pass it along to others.

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Letter from the Editor

Laura Maychruk

Dear Loyal Readers, As promised, I am updating you on how our Christmas went with my idea of giving our children experiences instead of gifts or THINGS. Well, as you can see by the photo of our tree on Christmas morning, it did not go as well as I had hoped. Some of the gifts are from Grandma and Grandpa, but I did end up breaking down and buying some toys, games and clothes for the kids. However, I was fairly successful finding fun things to sign the kids up for like cake decorating classes, theatre tickets, art classes and sports camps. If you look closely at the tree you will see that it is covered in small envelopes addressed to each of the kids with their experiences explained inside. This experiment went over much easier with our girls ages 11 and 8, and not so well with the boys ages 6 and 4. I think that as the kids continue to get older, I will continue this line of thinking and hopefully conquer my war on STUFF in Christmases to come.

UPDATE: It appears that construction on the collapsed building next to Buzz Café has begun! A few days after Christmas, the scaffolding was removed from the parking lot in front of us. We have seen neon markings on the sidewalk and alley and other positive signs that work is beginning—FINALLY!! It has taken 4 1/2 months, which is an unbelievably long time for a small business owner—Matt Kiwalis of Prodigy Glassworks to be without his business and hope. We (the Oak Park Arts District) and I will continue to apply pressure to the parties involved to ensure that progress continues and that Matt is restored into his space ASAP.

A part of this story that continues to baffle me is that the Kleronomos Family ie Chris Kleronomos continues to fight in court to hold on to these properties that were placed in Foreclosure. All 7 of the Kleronomos properties are located along Harrison Street and all are in disrepair, long-time vacant and otherwise making the Oak Park Arts District seem like a blighted and undesirable business district. For more than 20 years this District has been held captive by Kleronomos and not allowed to grow and thrive. The anger and frustration that has built up over the years has been palpable but the collapse of the 200 building has brought it to a head. I would like to ask, or maybe beg the Kleronomos Family to stop fighting and allow these buildings to fall into the hands of owners who will restore the buildings and rent the spaces to viable businesses, restaurants, shops etc… WHY does the Kleronomos Family want them?? They have had them for decades and have done NOTHING with them?? They pay the taxes on them, but do not take income from them, the only thing that makes any sense is that the buildings are being used as a tax shelter. It is unconscionable, and I hope that the judge or bank that is going to make the final decision takes these factors into consideration and gives us our neighborhood back!!

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Employee of the Qaurter!

Jim Jackson

Jim continues to serve Buzz Cafe with an exemplary level of professionalism and dedication.

Thanks Jim. We appreciate YOU!

Employee of the MONTH!

Dylan Roeder

ow long have you worked at Buzz Cafe?

On and off for 5 yrs.

What position(s) do you work?

Counter/Barista

Favorite thing about working for Buzz Cafe?

Matt's cynisism

What are a couple of your favorite foods/drinks at the Cafe?

Coffee with soy, and the Bro-Sham-Bro breakfast (pumpernickel bagel with pesto, hash browns, and a whisper of Tasbaco).

Social Status?

1 dog named Muppet

Hobbies or Passion?

Skateboarding, playing music, and reading

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