Fulton cafe and bakery rises to the occasion

FULTON – Running a restaurant was a lifelong dream come true for Renee Holmes, owner of Krumpets bakery and cafe.

Then the pandemic gave her a rude awakening.

“There aren’t any profits right now; we’re operating at a loss,” Holmes said. “Before coronavirus, it was busy. Then it was a complete dive.”

Like many small business, the coronavirus took a big bite out of her downtown eatery at 1016 Fourth Ave., making it tough to turn a profit, much less survive. Holmes, 60, has managed to keep her head above water, but it has not been easy. She’s had to invest countless hours to find ways to keep her shop afloat. Sometimes that meant revving up the online search engines to look for grants or any other help she could find.

“I scoured the internet, I scoured all of the government’s pages to find out how to get assistance,” Holmes said. “I filled out every single grant application that I came across, whether I was going to qualify or not.”

She’s also leaned on carryout business, instead of dine-in, offering her full line of bakery goods and some hot dishes as well.

When the first shutdown order came back in March, Holmes immediately went to work finding out what she would be able to do under the new rules. She had to plan carefully because, unlike other businesses, a restaurant’s inventory has a limited shelf life. Holmes had to plan how much she could order for her made-from-scratch dishes and pastries.

“When you’re buying groceries at the tune of $3,000 to $4,000 a week, and all of a sudden you suddenly shut down, you still got 2 weeks of $3,000 to $4,000 of groceries to pay for. So any reserve funds that I had paid the bills for the next month.”

Holmes got a Paycheck Protection Program loan she used it to pay her employees their full wages until the money was gone; it’s since all been forgiven. She also received $20,000 from a Women in Business Grant and an $80,000 Business Interruption grant.

With her payroll taken care of for the most part, it was time for Holmes to think about how to keep the restaurant going.

“We’re working at a loss right now,” Holmes said. “Were it not for the grants, I wouldn’t be able to sustain this at all. Right now we’re spending more than we’re taking in, but with the grants, I’m able to maintain payroll to some degree, and trying to budget it out to try and sustain the place all the way through the end, whenever that is.”

While Holmes was looking every which way to keep her childhood dream alive, her customers stepped up in big ways. Several residents and customers of each of Fulton’s eateries took their $1,200 economic stimulus checks to the Whiteside County United Way ans asked that money go to restaurant employees. Gift cards of $100 to the Fulton Meat Market, which supplies Krumpets with fresh meat, were the result.

Even gratuities have helped tip the scales. Wads of dollar bills have become a common sight in the glass tip jar on the front counter. Holmes has even seen $100 bills stuffed in it.

“The kindness, generosity and the commitment of the community is what brought me here, and keeps me here,” Holmes said. “It is incredible. It gives me goosebumps every time I talk about it.”

It’s not just the restaurant that Holmes is trying to keep alive, it’s a legacy of four generations of family who have kept their customers’ appetites satisfied.

As a child growing up in Upstate New York in the 1960s, Holmes’ toy box looked more like a kitchen cabinet, with silverware, plates, fake food – and she called her own shots in an imaginary place of her own with a name of her own: Krumpets. Her mother and grandfather ran a restaurant there before moving to Clinton, Iowa, when Renee was young.

When she got older, Renee baked cakes and other goodies at the family truck stop in Clinton until 15 years ago, when she opened up her own place in the Iowa river town. It attracted people from Fulton, who wanted Holmes to move across the Mississippi River to be a little closer to them. She set up shop in Fulton 8 years ago.

The new location was a hit, and she grew to add nearly 20 staff members, including her daughter, Jessica, who continues to manage the front of the place. The pandemic forced her to cut her staff in half; some of those who remain have been with her all 15 years.

Justin Lange, 42, of Clinton, is one of them. The professionalism is what he enjoys about working at Krumpets.

“I get to come in and make soups, so I get to do that without having gone to culinary school,” Lange said. “The style of cooking I get to do, the cleanliness of our kitchen – I’ve seen just about every type of kitchen and they’re sort of gross, but our kitchen is the total opposite of that.”

Things have changed for the kitchen staff these days, going from a grand display of whole products to individual products, and so far that’s working for them. Soups are being sold by the quart, and special dinners for two are made in take-and-bake fashion, all in an effort to adapt to unprecedented times, Holmes said.

As long as she has her loyal customers coming in – sometimes up to four times a week – Holmes has high hopes she’ll make it through.

“This little community is on top of the game,” she said. “They’re not going to lose – they won’t let that happen. I’d attribute my success to the locals; they want me here and are willing to do whatever to keep me here.

“It’s such a gratifying place to be in. My heart is full.”

Krumpets

Krumpets, 1016 Fourth St. in Fulton, offers curbside service from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, but is closed for the holidays until Jan. 4.

Cash, credit or debit card are accepted.

Find Krumpets on Facebook or call 815-208-7143 for a menu or for more information.