Making a go of a small business is always tough.

But in this battered and battering economy, tough doesn’t begin to tell the tale. Start ups come and go with sad regularity.

But Colleen Barry, owner, chief cook and bottle washer of the Kitsch-en at 141 A Place S.E. in downtown Auburn, is making it work.

On Wednesday, Barry, her customers and staff whooped it up for the one-year anniversary of the popular downtown eatery just north of Safeway.

To mark the big event, which fell upon St. Patrick’s Day, Barry whipped up an Irish treats like corned beef sandwiches on rye and stuffed cabbage.

“It’s been tough but rewarding,” Barry said of the past year, as she sat for a rare slow moment to catch a breath. “I feel happy that I’ve made it for a year. People are coming back, and more people are coming in every day. I enjoy doing this, and right now I wouldn’t be doing anything else.”

But there are moments.

“It’s fine one day, then the next day you’re wondering, ‘What have I got myself into? It’s getting better. It’s rewarding on the good days.”

Norm Shawstad, one of Barry’s regulars, said he appreciates a place where a body can sit for a breakfast of sausage, toast, two eggs, old fashioned hash browns and coffee for just $4.50.

“It’s just what Auburn needed,” said Shawstad.

Marie Loux said she especially loves the vegetable soup and the bean, ham and bacon soup.

“Everything’s homemade and fresh. It’s all good and at reasonable prices,” said Loux.

Barry had never owned a restaurant before, but said it had been her dream for about 30 years.

“The time was right to do it … well, maybe it wasn’t the right time, but for me it was,” Barry said with a short laugh.

The name of the restaurant reflects in part the decor, an eclectic mix of ’50s-era bric-a-brac. That includes some notorious pink neon birds in the faux fireplace.

“I come because I like the flamingos,” one customer cracked.

“It’s the ’40s atmosphere,” Shawstad added. “Nobody else has it.”

Barry explained how she chose the restaurant’s name.

“When I looked up ‘kitsch’ I learned it was a Yiddish term that means ‘vulgar.’ But when I think ‘kitsch,’ I think more of a decorating style. Kitsch is 1950s velvet Elvis paintings or troll dolls. I enjoy the Art Deco era, and to me this is a little bit outside of the Art Deco era.”

Her goal, she said, has been to make her place warm and inviting.

“I want to make sure everybody feels special when they come in,” said Barry. “I enjoy being creative and trying to make stuff for people. If you come in and say, ‘I remember how when I was a little kid I had peanut butter and mayonnaise and apples on rye bread,’ and if I have the stuff here, I’m going to make it for you. The way the world is right now people need comfort. And this is the one-stop comfort shop.”