After nearly 100 years, Gayety’s reaches back to ensure future
Southland sweet shop bought by a former longtime employee
Nothing lasts forever, as was made all too clear last October when Gayety's Chocolates and Ice Cream closed in Lansing after nearly a century of serving up sweets in the Southland.
But that closure didn't last forever either, though to some fans of the venerable sweet shop it may have felt like forever.
Gayety's is reopening after it was purchased by a former employee who got her start at age 17 working in the shop when it was located at 92nd Street and Commercial Avenue on Chicago's South Side.
Laurene Lemanski said she plans to open the doors to the shop on Ridge Road in downtown Lansing before Easter. Gayety's moved there in 2003 from Torrence Avenue, where it had been since leaving its original Chicago location in 1988.
Lemanski said former Gayety's owner Lee Flessor once told her that as long as there is a store, she would have a job.
“Now Iwant to give back to the community,” she said. “And give everybody else jobs.”
Gayety's originally opened 98 years ago and had been run by the same family since Greek immigrant James Papageorge bought the ice cream parlor and candy shop in 1920. It was Papageorge's nephew, Flessor who moved the business from Chicago's South Side to Lansing, where he eventually passed it down to his son, Jim Flessor.
And now it's Lemanski's, who said she felt like part of the Gayety's family.
“When I first worked there as a teenager I fell in love with whole history of it,” she said. “Lee would talk about history of south Chicago. You learned its history.
Lemanski said she's felt Lee Flessor's presence in the store while readying it for business.
“It keeps motivating me,” she said.
Lemanski spent about 20 years working at the store, eventually taking care of the books and handling the Christmas orders. Even after leaving Gayety's, Lemanski, owner and broker of Briar Executive Realty, contributed to its efforts to remain open.
She purchased the business through its bankruptcy in February but was not able to officially announce its reopening until now. A small, satellite Gayety's store in Schererville that also closed in October will not reopen.
But the return of the flagship store spurred an emotional response.
“When I brought back the other workers all of us were crying,” Lemanski said. “Wenever thought we would be back here.”
Among those hired back by Lemanski is a candy dipper who started at Gayety's in the 1990s.
Lemanski has been hard at work preparing the store for its reopening.
“The floors are buffed – they look like glass,” she said.
In addition to the same recipes Lemanski is promising some new surprises she said will enhance the Gayety's experience.
“The goal is to bring folks together to enjoy and preserve the Gayety's history, traditions and quality,” she said. “In recent days we all have been working hard to prepare all of the delicious items we have grown to love.”