The parking lot where Sue Nibeck launched the Hinsdale Farmers Market in 1976 is now home to Fuller House restaurant, whose owners have Plan Commission approval for a new eatery next door. The market itself moved a block east to Burlington Park years ago. But Nibeck, 87, was back on opening day Monday, June 15, celebrating 50 years of the institution she spent a year convincing a skeptical Chamber of Commerce to allow.

The original site at First Street and Garfield Avenue is seeing active commercial investment. The Hinsdale Plan Commission approved findings on June 8 for Humble Patty, a quick-service restaurant proposed by Fuller House co-owner Sam Vlahos at 50 S. Garfield Ave. That storefront, formerly Dips & Dogs, has been vacant since approximately 2021. Occupancy is being held until a protective barrier is installed, and the project still needs Village Board approval.

Nibeck moved to Hinsdale from the New York City area in 1973. After visiting farmers markets in Evanston, Oak Park, and Elmhurst, she pitched the idea to the Hinsdale Chamber. Downtown merchants were struggling after Oak Brook Center opened a decade earlier, pulling shoppers out of the village. Nibeck spent nearly a year taking one resistant store owner to the Elmhurst market repeatedly to prove it wouldn't bring chaos.

"Really I had to take her several times up to Elmhurst to prove to her that it was such a gentle place," Nibeck told The Hinsdalean. "She finally gave in and we opened the market the following year."

Hank Soukup offered the parking lot behind his hardware store. The Chamber hired three men as "market masters." Nibeck served as volunteer coordinator for that first year and the 24 that followed, arriving at 5 a.m. each Monday to set up vendor spaces and sometimes bringing homemade coffeecakes for farmers. She required all participants to be working farms selling their own produce, and visited farms to verify.

Rob Pondelick of Theis Farm Markets, whose family has been a vendor since the market's founding, now represents the fifth generation of his Yorkville-based farming operation. He took over in January 2025.

The 50th season runs every Monday through October 12 at Burlington Park, 30 E. Chicago Ave., from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Hinsdale Chamber lists more than 20 vendors from Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin selling produce, eggs, honey, cheeses, meats, cut flowers, and prepared foods across 18 weeks.

Nibeck, who turns 88 in July, managed the market for its first 25 years before stepping back. She now lives in Darien.