Nov. 6, 2019

A coffee roasting business is moving to a downtown location and eventually plans to add an espresso bar.

The Breaks Coffee Roasting Co. is leasing space at 311 E. 12th St. and will begin remodeling soon.

“The main focus with the new space is to expand our current roasting space,” co-founder Corey Gerlach said. “We’ve outgrown the space we’re in.”

The Breaks, which started roasting coffee in February 2016, will keep the building at 1101 N. Dakota Ave. for office and storage space, he said.

When the new location opens sometime next year, it will include a retail space, so customers can drop in and buy coffee beans. Now, bags of The Breaks Coffee are sold at The Co-op Natural Foods, Pomegranate Market, Plum’s Cooking Co., K Restaurant and M.B. Haskett Delicatessen. Look’s Marketplace will carry the beans when the mercantile area opens in the new location. The Breaks also delivers beans to several businesses and restaurants in Sioux Falls that serve coffee to employees and customers, and it does custom orders for corporate gifts. The roastery has two blends that it offers year-round, three seasonal ones, a decaf blend and and espresso blend.

The business’ growth has exceeded expectations, Gerlach said.

“It has flourished into more of a full-time gig,” said Gerlach, who also does audio engineer, DJ and production work. His wife, Mary Campbell, also will join the business with the new location.

Creating a coffee shop that also might serve small bites and baked goods is part of the “end game,” Gerlach said, and until then he envisions doing a pop-up espresso bar when nearby Total Drag has concerts, for example. Getting a beer and wine license could be a possibility too, he said.

“I’ve always thought that area was cool,” Gerlach said of the block, which also includes Green Dream Screen Printing and Common Sense. “It’s a unique area, and I think that over time it’s going to come into its own.”

A four-story apartment building is nearing completion to the east, and Game Chest recently moved into the area.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of coffee in the downtown area … but people are busy and don’t always have time to find a place to park, so this might be convenient for some.”

Gerlach has a long history of roasting coffee, including stints at coffee shops in Sioux Falls, and he’s looking forward to having a retail space.

“Since we’ve been just a roastery, we haven’t been able to interact with customers. It’ll be nice to be more of a visible business.”