LANSING — A woman shopping for tuxes gasped at Katina Baryames’ business card when the owner handed it to her, pausing for a moment on the store floor to take in the last name matching the sign outside: Baryames.
“She goes, ‘You’re a celebrity!’” Baryames recently recalled of the interaction, which happened last year. “I never really thought of it like that.”
Katina and her brother Art are the third generation of Baryames business owners pressing shirts and prepping outfits for Lansing, with Art Baryames overseeing Baryames Cleaners and Katina Baryames running Baryames Tuxedo and Suit store.
The family is celebrating a century of business in the city this year. The company’s 15 dry cleaning locations and tuxedo store, as well as signs dotting the region, are light-years away from the 10-chair shoeshine and newspaper stand the siblings’ grandfather started in 1922.
