DECEMBER 2023
10
SPARK
THE BEST OF TWO HISTORIC BAKERIES MAKES RENZEMA’S A SWEET CLASSIC By Dave Person david.r.person@gmail.com
oatmeal raisin cookies. He also makes Malnight’s popular clown cookies, which continue to be a hot seller. He uses Malnight’s buttercream icing on both cakes and cookies.
Doug and Cathy Knibbe are carrying on the tradition of not one, but two popular Kalamazoo area bakeries at Renzema’s Bakery in Parchment.
All of those products, in addition to pies during the holidays, are available either wholesale or at the Renzema’s location,
In 2001, Doug Knibbe , who had been a baker at Malnight’s Bakery in downtown Kalamazoo for 17 years, bought both Malnight’s and Renzema’s, consolidating the baking for both operations at the Parchment location, 214 Link Lane.
tion baker when he opened Renzema’s in Parchment. His grandfather was the first to open a bakery, in 1878 in the Netherlands, according to a 1978 Kalamazoo Gazette story. Three of Renzema’s children became bakers, Knibbe says, and Knibbe purchased the bakery from son Pete, who
“I can remember coming in here as a kid,” he says. His mother would stock up on bread for her family, which included Knibbe and his five siblings.
He kept both bakeries open until 2005, when he closed Malnight’s, which had been in business since 1919. Although the Malnight’s name ceases to exist as a bakery, Knibbe has continued to sell its popular products at Renzema’s.
Both Malnight’s and Renzema’s had been in their respective families for generations.
“It was kind of a merger of the two businesses,” Knibbe says of his purchase of the bakeries.
Both bakeries made cookies, and Knibbe has continued making the best of both bakeries.
Malnight’s was known for its cakes, wholesale breads, including burger buns, and puff pastries. Renzema’s sold bread and doughnuts.
“We both had chocolate chip; we both had oatmeal raisin,” he says, adding that he continues to make Malnight’s chocolate chip cookies and Renzema’s
Robert Malnight, from whom Knibbe bought Malnight’s, took over that bakery from his parents and maternal grandparents, who founded it. His children and some of his grandchildren worked in the bakery as well. William Renzema was a third-genera-
PHOTO BY DEREK KETCHUM
“This store has done really well over the years,” Knibbe, 58, says of Renzema’s.
