BEST Magazine Cincinnati

KIM
KLOSTER MAN
MICHAEL
& LOWE
PROSPECT HILL
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URBAN LIVING
33
At
STORY BY DOUGLAS EDWARD SANDHAGE
PHOTOS BY HELEN ADAMS
Prior page: Whether occupied just by Kim Klosterman and husband
Michael Lowe, or by a room full of guests, the combined living and
dining room is not lacking for space or great conversation. On this
particular night, Sarah Jane Bellamy and Mark Prince visited. The
couple’s home on Prospect Hill includes a panoramic view of downtown Cincinnati. The leather Terrazza sofa is by Ubald Klug, 1973.
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some point in time you’ve had the Klostermans in your home.
Talk about branding – it can’t get much better than this. Oh, and
that last hamburger you had at McDonald’s, chances are about
100 percent the bun came from Klostermans as well. They just
don’t tell you that. Here you only know it by the taste, says Kim
Klosterman, unabashedly proud that their McDonald’s “buns are
better” than any other’s buns baked for the giant corporation.
It’s really hard to be writing a story that includes Cincinnati’s
first family of baking without using, somehow, someway, a play
on words that involves dough. So, my first thought touring the
Klosterman bakery off Paddock Avenue in Norwood was: “It
smells like somebody is making dough.” And no doubt they are.
Kim, CEO and Chairman for the 119-year-old Klosterman
Baking Co., says the baking business has been good to the
Klosterman family. Company products are represented in more
than 4,000 restaurants, groceries, hospitals and schools in Ohio,
Kentucky and Indiana. The restaurants include McDonalds,
Frisch’s, Gold Star, Applebee’s and many more. They have four
baking plants and 10 distribution centers.
I asked Kim if she considered herself, if asked her profession,
a baker. I thought said title would be a good one to have, one
that would extol a passionate understanding of how important
bread is to the world, one that would be a show-stopper at a
convention of tax accountants because hers would be a lot more
fun, one that would mean she would never have to buy another
loaf of fresh bread in her lifetime. Husband Michael could call
and say: “Honey, would you stop at the assembly line and pick
up a fresh loaf of bread?”
Kim invited me to walk through the baking plant with plant
manager Larry Moore. Larry had just returned from eating lunch
at Gold Star Chili, where, he proclaimed, the buns were very
good, all in the name of on-site product testing.
Larry showed me everything, starting at the garage doors,
where the flour (320,000 lbs. a week) comes delivered, to the
garage doors at the other end of the building, where the trucks
pull in to pick up their bread deliveries. In between, there were
fermenting troughs of dough, barrels with special toppings
When the 60s and 70s are at the heart of your
primary interests, what better way to be
greeted than by Mick Jagger when you walk in
the front door? The Mick piece was painted by
Robert Stanley and the Rorschach wallpaper was
designed in the 60s as an art project by Robert
Delford Brown.
(sesame seeds, onion seeds, poppy seeds, wheat bran and
more), ovens for baking, slicers that cut the buns in half, all
moving on more than 600 feet of line conveyors and managed
along the way by employees on the alert for any malfunctions or
imperfections. The total time to make a bun, from flour mixing
to packaging, is an hour and 28 minutes.
Amy Ott, marketing manager for the company, gave me this
fun fact: During a three-week period between June and July, the
24-7 Cincinnati plant produced more than 1.8 million large hotdog buns, which, if lined end-to-end, would stretch 170.45 miles.
At the end of the line, armed with two gift packages of buns
to take home, Kim drove me back to their corporate office a few
blocks away in her 1991 Volvo, the first car, she says, she ever
bought for herself. Inside is a self-affixed peace symbol. The
license plate was a regular-folks type, not one that said:
IMAKBRD. For that is only a portion of what she does.
S O MET H I N G A B O U T T H I S C O U P LE
Kim and her husband, Michael Lowe, live in Prospect Hill, their
home for the last 20 years. Among their neighbors are Pope
and Connie Coleman (also featured in this issue of Best
Kim Klosterman’s Dad, Ken, was in large part an inspiration for creating
the “secret room,” or library. Ken is known around the country as a
magic aficionado and this room features a revolving book case that
when closed gives the illusion that the room does not have a door. “We
grew up with secret rooms, secret panels and secret drawers,” says
Kim. The painting on the mirror over the fireplace is by Italian artist
Michelangelo Pistoletto, and behind it is a paperbacked fabric used as
wallpaper. The books focus mostly on art, jewelry and cooking. “It’s all
we know,” says Kim. The room, which is located in the part of the home
built in the mid-1860s, also houses many of the couple’s favorite
collectibles that would not fit into the contemporary nature of the
home’s new addition. “It’s things we couldn’t part with, and it was nice
to keep one part of the house as a tribute to what it was originally.”
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Magazine). Prospect Hill is part of the Mount Auburn neighborhood of Cincinnati and is bounded by Liberty, Sycamore,
Boal and Highland.
The home, a combination of an existing Victorian, built in the
1860s, and a new one built just six years ago, is perched on a
hill overlooking downtown Cincinnati. While the front is not
necessarily unique, once inside, whoa! its got all the makings of
a Hollywood set, circa 60s/70s. There’s even a “secret” room
inspired by Kim’s Dad, Ken, a world-renowned magic buff. It
has one of those bookshelves that turns full circle (think of the
movie Young Frankenstein), giving the illusion that the room has
no door.
The living room is particularly impressive. It’s two stories
high with one wall of windows facing downtown, gallery walls
on the left and right, a vitrine on another to showcase their
latest art finds, and the adjoining kitchen. All of the walls and
cabinetry in the living room and kitchen (both located in the
addition) are white, the contemporary-based furniture provides
color, and the appliances are stainless steel. Modern, yes; comfortable, yes; uncluttered, absolutely; fun, you bet. The art on
the walls is distinct, open to virtually any interpretation, but
conspicuously placed to contrast the white walls. Several
canvas micro-paintings are by abstract artist Gene Davis, completed in 1966.
The plan of their new / old home, says Michael, was that
“when we came home every day, we would say ‘Wow! We live
here.’ Plus, we wanted a view.’” Adds Kim: “It has truly changed
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the way we feel, with all the light. We live as minimalists.”
The new structure was designed by Eric Puryear, with Beck
Architecture. “They (Kim and Michael) had been living traditionally but what they really wanted was an open loft space that
would capitalize on the views and serve as a backdrop for their
art collection,” says Eric. “And it was important that the rooms
open up for larger numbers of people (at parties) to circulate.”
He added that Kim and Michael, given their backgrounds, were
very hands-on in the project and that the interior furnishings, art
and lighting selections were made by them.
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In their 33 years of marriage, Kim and Michael have always
been downtowners or near. Prior to this home, they lived in the
Belvedere in North Avondale. However, the twosome decided in
1998 to take a six-month break and moved to a 17th century
home in Amsterdam overlooking a canal.
Kim grew up in a remote area of Ft. Mitchell, one that even
Trick-or-Treaters rarely visited. “We always lived off the beaten
path,” she says. She, brother Chip and sister Jayme all worked in
the family-owned business as youngsters, Kim in the retail stores.
And at the family dinner table, breaking bread meant talking even
When Kim Klosterman brings out a photo of a past dish so that she can remember how to make it, it means it’s one of her favorites. Though she rarely uses recipes,
her library includes hundreds of cookbooks “to be read like novels.” She and husband Michael love to have dinner parties where visitors can hang out in the
spacious kitchen. A major feature of the kitchen is that it can be open to the dining room and living room, or closed off through pocket doors for a more intimate
environment. “We spend as much time in the kitchen as we do anywhere,” says Kim.
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The dining room of the Klosterman / Lowe home
features art by Lawrence Weiner who designed
the Moved Out of Focus decal on the wall, and
from Christo who designed the contemporary art
below the decal. The Italian-made chandelier is
from the 60s. Kim and Michael are particularly
fond of art from the 60s and 70s. “We like it to
be casual and fun,” says Kim. Kim is on the
board for the Contemporary Arts Center.
This room, and its adjoining living and
kitchen spaces, were designed by Eric
Puryear with Beck Architecture. “They (Kim
and Michael) had been living traditionally
but what they really wanted was an open
loft space that would capitalize on
the views and serve as a backdrop
for their art collection,” says Eric.
more about work. “It was always a part of our lives,” she says. Of
course, all of the current members of the board were always in
attendance: Ken, Mom Judy, Chip, Jayme and Kim.
Kim graduated from Villa Madonna Academy and from
Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. The latter is the second oldest all-female college in the country.
Michael grew up in Austria, and moved to the U.S. in 1972. He
married Kim a half decade later and a few years beyond he opened
a gallery in O’Bryonville that sold traditional art, much of it by
Cincinnati artists. In ’82 he moved it to downtown Cincinnati and
named it Michael Lowe Gallery. It is open only to private and
internet sales and specializes in 1960s and 1970s art.
IT’S A LL A BOUT THE HUNT
When they aren’t working, they enjoy collecting. Whether it
be things for the house or for Michael’s gallery, they’ll go to
wherever it takes, including far-away road trips, to find what they
are looking for, which Michael says is “a weird variety of stuff.”
Their destinations still include junk shops, flea markets and the
occasional garage sale.
“I tend to be the insane person, buying things,” says Michael.
But, adds Kim, “As long as he can be on the hunt, he’s a happy
boy.”
Independently, Kim is a 15-plus-year collector and seller of fine
jewelry, specializing in 20th century American and European work,
story continues on page 46
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but especially in designer jewels from the 1960s and 1970s. “I’ve
always loved unusual pieces, as a collector,” says Kim. “I have
focused mainly on jewelry that is wearable but unique, and always
indicative of the period in which it was produced.”
Kim says she has sold jewelry all over the world – “from China
to Iowa.” It is a direct-to-consumer business where she can buy
and sell on the internet (www. kklostermanjewelry.com), a place
she calls an “even playing ground with my colleagues.” She
adds that many of the pieces in her collection she “bought at
auction, from people who might have inherited it, but it is not
their taste.” Her sales have included pieces to the Boston
Museum of Fine Art, to Tiffany and to celebrities.
“I think these pieces go very well with the cut of today’s clothing,” says Kim. “Gucci, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, all look great
with a big ring or a designer necklace.“ But, she adds, she does
While Michael Lowe has his own downtown gallery, he keeps personal favorites in his at-home gallery/home office.
The French chairs, from the 1960s, are by Marc Held; the sculpture on the floor (meant for performance art) is by
Franz Erhard Walther; and the painting on the wall above the sculpture is by Olivier Mosset. The Klosterman/Lowe
home is filled with art, but there is much more than is displayed at any one time. “It is difficult to live minimally and
display all of the art you would like to,” says Kim.
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not overlook more conservative styles and loves a whimsical
brooch for a suit. “A great brooch can make a quiet suit shout.”
AL L IN T H E FAM I LY
Back at Klosterman baking headquarters, located in a 1930s art
deco designed building, Kim’s second-floor office is as minimalist as her home. “As a family-owned business, we don’t do anything conventional,” says Kim, explaining that, as opposed to
corporately owned firms, the family is able to “move more
quickly on ideas and make things happen. There is little red tape
and we can think outside the box, that’s for sure.” She adds that
Klosterman is one of the few family-owned baking companies
remaining in the country.
In all, the company employs 600. “We have good people,”
says Kim, adding that many employees have been with the company a long time and that it is not uncommon for those who
have left to return later. Plant manager Larry is a 34-year veteran
and gives enthusiastic tours as if he just started.
And speaking of just started, Klosterman introduced in May
new products to its line, including Flat Bread, Bagel Thins,
Sandwich Slims, Pita Breads, and Pizza Crusts. If you have an
idea for something new for the company to bake, particularly if
you are a restaurant and want the next best thing in a hamburger
bun, flavor or topping, the company’s production development
team will step in. At press time for this issue of Best Magazine,
Klosterman had just announced a new contract to provide baked
goods for Cincinnati Public Schools.
Between running the baking company, selling jewelry and
selling art, Kim says that collectively “it’s our life, not our jobs.
We don’t have hours.” Michael adds,“(Our businesses) are so intertwined with our personal interests.”
They have frequent guests and Kim, who keeps a collection
of hundreds of cookbooks, enjoys planning for and preparing
dinners. Area restaurant haunts on their list include Nicola’s,
Melt, Jean-Robert’s Table, Gold Star Chili, and The Echo.
W HO DID IT ?
Architecture: Beck Architecture
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