On June 30, Sara Cummins ended her nearly 34-year ownership of a downtown restaurant staple – Rib Alley.
“It was a good job over the years. I met a lot of good people over the years and I made a lot of good friendships over the years,” said Cummins of her long tenure running the business in the center of Kosciusko.
“If you compare me to everyone else on the square, I’m the dinosaur,” she said with a laugh.
When she first bought the place, it was located in an actual alley about a block off the square.
“If you weren’t coming to Rib Alley, you actually never saw it,” she remembers. So when she had the option to move into a more visible location at the corner of North Madison and West Washington, she did.
Cummins said she spent 12 years on the Tourism Committee trying to ensure the success of Kosciusko and its downtown.
“We were bringing people downtown and then making them want to come back,” she said. “You didn’t stay a stranger very long.”
Business remained solid she said until the economic downturn that hit the area hard in 2008.
“I knew at the time that we were in for hard times and it has shaken out that way,” she said. Over the years, she said she had many loyal customers, but that the younger generations have not followed.
“The younger people never knew who Mama Sara was. I worked hard to keep the square viable, but now I want to cry when I see it,” she says. “That was one of the disappointments of the whole thing.”
Cummins said she feels strongly that the best ways to revitalize the city are three-fold: build a four-lane road from Vaiden to Carthage, expand the airport, and create new manufacturing jobs in Kosciusko.
Moving into semi-retirement, Cummins said she has no desire to leave her hometown and has already found a new job, working at Penn’s restaurant part time.
“I’m not ready to leave Kosicusko; this is home to me,” she said. “Now that I’m in retirement, I’m going to be happy.”
