Runaway trucks, tornadoes and millions of pies: Beloved Peoria bakery had long, colorful history

Ask Dean is a Journal Star column focusing on Peoria's history, mysteries, quirks and culture. Send your questions to dmuellerleile@pjstar.com.

Question: Do you have any information on a business called Kitchen Made Pies? I believe it was located on South Adams Street in Peoria. — Kelly

Answer: The fondly remembered Kitchen Made Pie Co. has a storied, if turbulent, history. It supplied more than 10,000 pies to the 1951 Eureka Pumpkin Festival , when that was a thing. It weathered a runaway pie truck in 1963, a safecracking and tornado in 1965, and a worker dismemberment in 1972 . For decades, the company supplied restaurants and groceries across the Peoria area.

Kitchen Made left a beloved legacy. Commenters on social media fondly recall its pies. "I can still taste them man they were good," one commenter noted. A file of newspaper clippings at the Peoria Public Library's Local History and Genealogy Room includes a handwritten notation stating "we get calls for these articles from all over the U.S." Kitchen Made-branded pie pans remain popular collectibles online.

Over the years, Kitchen Made Pie varieties included apple, blueberry, cherry, coconut cream, lemon meringue, mince, peach, pumpkin, raisin and raspberry, according to stories and advertisements.

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Eyes on the pies

According to a 2007 obituary in the Journal Star, Frank J. Dubicki, an experienced pieman , and his wife, Virginia, established the Kitchen Made Pie Co. on State Street in Peoria in 1950. "Frank later relocated his bakery to 2400 S.W. Adams and continued to run his company until his retirement in 1981," the obituary added.

Local newspaper digital accounts of the company date back to 1951, when the Peoria Star printed a photo and story about the company's contribution to the Eureka Pumpkin Festival. "SOMBODY'S GOT A LOT OF CRUST !" read the misspelled and now-dated photo lead-in, with an equally cryptic caption: "The question of who put the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's chowder pales in comparison with who cut the Jack-o-Lantern face in one of Frank Dubicki's 10,500 pumpkin pies destined for the Eureka Pumpkin festival today. At Dubicki's Kitchen-Made bakery, small and large size pumpkin pies were being baked all day Friday at the rate of 150 per hour in a rotary oven. They are expected to disappear a lot more quickly this afternoon." The story added that the festival was to include a pie-eating contest and the distribution of free pies from the company on "East State Street."

Early 1950s ads in the Journal Star showed the Kitchen Made Pie Co. operating at 314 E. State St. By the late 1950s, stories and ads listed the company's address as 719 W. Main St.

'Thanks, Peoriarea'

A 1956 display ad read, "THANKS, PEORIAREA" and listed the new address. The picture showed a fleet of Kitchen Made Pie trucks.

In a nationally syndicated news brief, United Press International reported a lawsuit filed by the company in 1958. "The Pies Went Bad," read a curiously front-page item in, of all places, the Daily Jeffersonian of Cambridge, Ohio. The Kitchen Made Pie Co. "filed a $15,000 damage suit Wednesday against the manufacturers of a concrete floor sealer charging the cement had such a 'decidedly unpleasant' smell it caused pastry to decay almost as soon as it was baked."

Runaway pie truck

In January 1963, the Journal Star ran a photo and a story headlined, "Runaway Pie Truck Hits 5 Cars." The article began, "A driverless truck left its parking place in the 300 block of Liberty street about 7:30 a.m. today and rolled more than two blocks down a hill, knocking over a parking meter and damaging five automobiles."

A Peoria police patrolman told the paper the driver had parked his vehicle while he made deliveries. A moment later, the story continued, the truck started rolling toward the Illinois River, with the driver chasing after it. The vehicle then hit the meter and a parked car but continued downhill. The truck careened into a private parking lot and hit another car, setting off a chain-reaction accident involving three other vehicles.

In May 1963, the Journal Star reported the company had moved into new quarters at 2400 SW Adams St. "The company which is a merger between Kitchen Made and the former Mrs. Wagner's Pies, now has 14,000 square feet of space and new equipment including a new oven." To celebrate, Kitchen Made advertised a "free lunch pie" with the purchase of a grocery or restaurant pie at its new location.

An August 1964 article noted that "in addition to placing fresh baked pies on the market the company also has frozen pies with 30,000 on hand in a walk-in freezer."

A safecracking at the distribution center

In April 1965, the Journal Star reported that a "safecracking was discovered shortly before 6 a.m. at the Kitchen Made Pie Co., 2701 SW Adams St., where an estimated $600 was taken." This was apparently at the company's recently completed distribution center at that address.

A tornado survived

In September 1965, the Kitchen Made Pie Co. at 2400 SW Adams was one of many structures damaged in a tornado. Thankfully, no one was killed. But the company reported "extensive loss to equipment."

Kitchen Made soldiered on at the Southwest Adams location, repeatedly posting help-wanted ads in the Journal Star. "Good job for a right man," the ads regularly said.

An employee's miraculous rebound

An August 1972 story in the Journal Star followed the recovery of the company's maintenance engineer, whose foot was severed in an accident on the job. Donald Sayers said he'd been told "the chances were about 95 per cent I wouldn't even keep the foot." But the 37-year-old Morton man's foot "was sewn back on, he has feeling in it, and can now move his toes," the newspaper reported.

Their piece of the pie

In February 1973, the Journal Star devoted a full page to the Kitchen Made Pie Co. The article contradicts some details in the Frank J. Dubicki obituary, but adds others:

"Back in 1951," the story says, the company's president, Dubicki, "his wife, and a handful of workers started out with a half-a-dozen each of various flavored pies and went around knocking on the doors of restaurant owners hoping to sell his pastries. Since then, the business has grown into an excess of $1 million in sales and is the only pie-making business operating out of Peoria."

“We serve most of Illinois, including Chicago, Rockford, Moline, Bloomington, Decatur, and Champaign, and we've been in the St. Louis, Mo., area for the last three months," Dubicki told the paper.

"We prefer frozen fruit to canned because it produces a better flavor," Dubicki said. "And we try to get fruit that will provide the best possible taste," he added. "Our strawberries come from Mexico, our pineapple from Hawaii, our rhubarb from the state of Washington, and our apples and cherries from northern Michigan."

The article adds, "Considered a small bakery, the company turns out 50,000 lunch pies, 35,000 restaurant and grocery pies, and a couple thousand cakes per week."

A poignant pie break-in

According to a rather touching 1974 story, two teenagers were caught inside the bakery. The boys were arrested, the story said, but both were given a blueberry pie by the company foreman. "One of the boys admittedbreaking into the building with the intent to 'steal something,'" the story read. "The foreman at the company gave the pies to the youths which they ate at the police station. One youth was released to his mother and the other was taken to the Gift Avenue Detention Home."

Pitching pies, and hanging on

In the late 1970s, Kitchen Made Pie Co. filler ads appeared in the Journal Star with pithy, if guilt-inducing, pitches, including, "Give your Children a Kitchen Made Pie with their lunch and they'll always love you!" Others were rather condescending: "Take Mother out of the kitchen — Put Kitchen Made Pies in. Bet you can't tell the difference!" Later fillers had a softer but more commercial focus: "Give Mom a break from her hot kitchen. Pick up a Kitchen Made pie for dessert tonight at your nearby Del Farm store."

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End of an era

By August 1982, the Kitchen Made Pie Co. had ceased operations, the Journal Star reported. The story read, "Kitchen Made Pie Co., 2400 S. Adams, has closed and filed for bankruptcy because the bakery which was planning to buy the firm withdrew its offer.

"Kitchen Made had filed a reorganization bankruptcy petition last February which allowed it to retain possession of its property and continue operating its business. As part of the reorganization plan, Lowenberg Bakery, Inc. of Ottumwa, Iowa, was supposed to purchase the Peoria bakery. Kitchen Made requested to change its bankruptcy petition after the plant closed July 23, idling 38 workers.

"The plant closing was attributed to accumulated debts, outdated equipment and problems with pie distribution."

The Kitchen Made Pie Co. never reopened.

Whether it's a person, place or product, send your "Whatever happened to ...?" and "Wasn't there a ...?" questions, comments and suggestions to dmuellerleile@pjstar.com. Please put ASK DEAN in the subject line.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Runaway trucks, tornadoes and millions of pies: Beloved Peoria bakery had long, colorful history