For nearly six months, new owners have been serving it up at A Break in Time Caffé, but the atmosphere and faces have remained the same — Becky and Bryce Loughran had already been running the restaurant since the fall of 2015, before buying it from Becky’s parents on Jan. 1.
“People are saying they’re getting the same feeling,” said Bryce. “The biggest compliment is not that it’s changed but that we’ve brought new life to it.”
“There was nothing wrong,” said Becky. “We didn’t want to do too much.”
“The branding is good,” added Bryce. “If I go to Cranbrook and mention Break in Time, people know what it is.”
Mexican food and all-day breakfast remain popular, but there are some differences on the menu: Burgers are now made with Famous Fritz meat, sauces and salsa are made from scratch, and a deep fryer now allows A Break in Time to offer fries, yam fries and wings.
And it’s all served by staff members that customers are familiar with.
“We’ve got a good core staff,” said Becky. “Some have been here for years. That’s hugely important.”
“If people enjoy coming to work, the customers see that,” said Bryce.
Becky’s parents, Calvin and Judy Germann, started the restaurant in early 2005, and in February, it was severely damaged by fire. After extensive renovations, it reopened in November 2007. And when they wanted someone else to take over, Becky and Bryce jumped at the chance.
“It’s something that I thought about many times over the years,” said Becky, whose previous Creston restaurant experience includes the Creston Valley Bakery and Café Milagro. “I loved the business and I wanted my own business one day.”
Her professional life since then has been in accounting, which gave her another previous connection to the restaurant business — she taught Judy to do the books for A Break in Time — one that she’s happy to continue.
“It’s just a bonus to do the books as well, using my accounting experience for the business,” she said.
Bryce, too, has had restaurant experience, working at Munro’s after the couple returned to Creston from Kelowna, where they met. He now balances work with the Ministry of Children and Family Development with A Break in Time.
The couple is happy to be in business right now, with positive changes coming to the community, including the official community plan being developed by the Town of Creston.
“We both really feel there’s just about to be a big move in the right direction,” said Becky.
And they’re part of that move, with A Break in Time, usually only open for breakfast and lunch, opening more often in the evening for music and speaker nights. The nighttime events bring in new customers, as well as many of the daytime regulars, but the atmosphere is quite different.
“They’re coming for a different reason,” said Becky.
Two concerts are coming up soon, with the Jocelyn Pettit Band, a Celtic and Canadian folk group, playing July 7, and the indie folk group, Farmer the Band, on July 9.
“Musicians who come in say it’s so nice to play here because they connect with the crowd,” said Bryce. “It feels like a living room.”
And the ability to offer something a little different is one of the things they enjoy about having a restaurant in Creston, a place they’re happy to call home.
“I know so many people, whether I’m at the post office or the liquor store or Overwaitea,” said Becky. “Everywhere I go, I see the faces of people in the community.”
