Aug. 14, 2020

Downtown Sioux Falls has a new coffee shop that features beans roasted on site.

The Breaks Coffee Roasting Co. opened this morning at 311 E. 12th St., across from the post office. For now, customers will have to get their drinks to go because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It has been pared back a little bit,” said Mary Campbell, who owns the business with her husband, Corey Gerlach. “What we open as, it’s just going to be kind of a slow start. We’re just going to build on that.”

Initially, hours will be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

The couple has set up a few stools and a couple of small tables on the sidewalk for anyone who wants to have a conversation and linger.

Eventually, there will be room for about 20 customers to sit inside.

Gerlach and Campbell began remodeling the former skate shop next to Total Drag late last year, gutting it and starting from scratch.

It’s filled with light from the front windows on the north and the row of small windows along the east side, which they painstakingly restored with new panes of glass and a fresh coat of paint, Gerlach said. Wooden beams and duct work in the ceiling were left exposed. They didn’t cover up the dappled concrete floor either, instead just putting a shine to it. They kept a garage door along the front wall, which they can open on nice days, and hope to eventually convert it to a glass door.

The pandemic created a few supply issues, but they were fortunate because the Italian espresso machine they wanted to order was already in the United States. If not, they would have run into another delay because the factory in Italy had been temporarily shut down.

The roaster, which Gerlach has used since The Breaks started in 2016, made the move from its original home north of downtown earlier this summer. He has been filling online orders for the various roasts and keeping up with wholesale accounts at small grocers such as Look’s Marketplace, Pomegranate Market and Sioux Falls Food Co+op.

Now, those beans will be turned into their drinkable form on-site.

“We have all sorts of coffee, tea and non-coffee drinks,” Campbell said. “We have a beer and license. In the first week or two, we won’t be having that available.”

For now, The Breaks will serve croissants and cookies from Look’s Marketplace that will arrive daily.

“I have a little bit of a background in food, and I would love to do more food in-house, but right now, we’re kind of trying to balance everything,” Campbell said.

They’re pleased with being in a part of downtown where it’s easier to find an open spot at a parking meter, that’s surrounded by apartments and close to the bike trail.

“We’re happy to be a part of downtown,” Gerlach said. “Definitely.”