CENTERBURG – Working under the hot July sun on Wednesday afternoon, Daphne Loudermilk stood on her toes and stretched as high as she could to peel the sticky, plastic letters off the door.
She slowly rolled off the yellow letters, which once spelled ‘Kristi’s Bakery,’ one at a time. After successfully removing each letter, she came down to wipe her brow.
In the coming hours, she would need to put up new letters. The Burg Cafe and Bakery was set to open the next day.
The new bakery replaces Kristi’s Bakery, owned by former Centerburg native Kristi Layton, which was a village staple for 16 years. Layton, 52, closed her business on June 30, choosing to move on to find work with health insurance and regular hours.
The new owners are Brad and Lacey Butcher, who have lived in Centerburg for seven years and have spent the last two weeks working to remodel the shop on 18 W. Main Street. In the 14 days since they took control of the building, Brad said he has only taken off one day.
The family has worked until midnight some nights, moving equipment in and making the shop their own.
“I’m just excited and looking forward to being a part of the community and watching this business grow,” Brad said while sitting at a table inside the shop, configuring the new credit card reader.
The credit card reader is one of several nuances that Butcher is bringing to the shop (customers used to have to pay in cash only). He will be making ‘cold brew’ coffee, which was not previously a part of Layton’s menu, and will also look into buying an espresso machine to make lattes and other coffee drinks.
Butcher hopes to begin serving light lunch items soon, such as cold sandwiches and salads. He will bring his pie baking expertise to the shop, whereas Layton specialized in cakes.
Despite these changes, Butcher plans on keeping much of the menu the same. The shop still serves donuts, muffins, cookies and standard breakfast items, as it did under Layton’s ownership. In fact, as Layton headed out, she shared her food supplier information with Butcher, so there will likely be no change in many of these breakfast mainstays.
The shop will keep the same hours – open 5 a.m. to noon Tuesday through Saturday – although Butcher will also make arrangements on Sundays for groups who call ahead of time.
Standing behind the counter on Friday morning, Butcher said traffic the first day was good, considering the shop’s lack of publicity.
Butcher has spent more time focused on getting his business up and running than driving marketing initiatives, although the shop does have its own Facebook page, where he announced Thursday morning’s grand opening.
The shop still has Layton’s pink sign above the door and the walls are considerably more sparse than they were during Layton’s reign. Lacey, an artist, plans to put her artwork on the walls soon. They will eventually get their own sign over the door.
Despite these ongoing changes, Butcher said he wanted to open the bakery as soon as possible to meet community needs.
“There are people that are anxious to get in here and see what I have and to purchase some stuff,” Butcher said. “And those people don’t care if the sign still says Kristi’s, they just want a good product and I’m hoping to provide for them.”
Family business
Amid the rush of getting things ready on Wednesday afternoon, Butcher’s oldest son, nine-year-old Alexander, walked around the shop.
Butcher says he shares a similar passion with his son, who already wants to become a major part of the family’s new business.
“He wants to help do everything and he wants to take care of the customers, and he’s all about the work,” Butcher said proudly, acknowledging the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
Butcher has had a passion for culinary arts since his youth. He started cooking when he was 10 years old, making baked chickens and other dishes for his family.
“When I was 12 and 13, we’d get home from school and my brother and sister would ask me what’s for dinner and not my parents,” Butcher said, laughing. “It was just something I really enjoyed.”
Butcher, 44, has been in the food service industry for the last 20 to 25 years. He started out as a dishwasher before becoming a cook, a sous chef and a banquet manager. He is now a kitchen manager at his family’s restaurant in Pataskala, The Nutcracker.
Butcher acknowledges he is taking a risk by opening up his own bakery, however.
“This is a lot bigger risk, because now if something goes wrong, it’s all on me,” Butcher said. “I don’t have anybody else to turn it over to or to take the blame for or anything else. So it’s up to us to make this a success.”
Butcher said much of the shop’s success will depend on whether or not the community views his bakery as its breakfast go-to stop.
“There’s still a question that’s like, ‘How many people in Centerburg are going to stay in Centerburg and buy their coffees and their donuts, and how many of them are going to continue to travel outside of Sunbury?’” he said.
“(Kristi’s) was an established business, so that’s good, and I would think that she probably felt the same way – that there’s a lot of people from Centerburg that are not spending their money here in Centerburg. My goal is to make the place that’s good enough to where they’ll want to stop here and spend their money also.”
One thing that helped Butcher take this risk was his family’s confidence, symbolized by his son’s energy and his wife’s willingness to take the leap with him. That trust is shown through Loudermilk, Butcher’s mother-in-law, who he said has been instrumental in the process of remodeling the bakery.
The hours will be strenuous; Butcher will need to be at the bakery by 3 a.m. at the latest each morning, putting in a 10-plus hour work day before heading off to The Nutcracker to work at the old-style diner in the evenings. With two boys, ages six and nine, Butcher admitted his new schedule will affect the whole family.
“It’s going to be a big adjustment for my entire family,” Butcher said. “It’s going to be very taxing, very tiring. But I’ve got the support from my wife and her family and stuff, so that’s going to make things a little easier.”
Community feel
Much like Layton, Butcher has already established himself as an active member of the Centerburg community.
He is involved with the Centerburg Trojan Soccer Association, coaching his sons and serving on the board in an effort to bring soccer to the community.
Centerburg’s school district does not currently have a soccer program, and the association strives to drive local interest in the sport through a competitive youth program, which is available for children as young as three years old.
“If we can build up the youth and stuff, then it can progress to the high school,” Butcher said.
Butcher has been enamored by Centerburg’s tight-knit feel ever since he moved into the community seven years ago.
“I love the community here. It’s amazing how involved and how much stuff they do,” he said. “Just for example, the first time I came up here and stuff we did Halloween. It was just amazing how many people were out, and it didn’t matter which direction you were going, there was house upon house with candy. It’s like they filled up their buckets, could dump it out and fill it up again, and we weren’t out the whole time. It’s that kind of involvement and excitement in the community here for different things.”
In order to build a successful business downtown, Butcher said he will have to gain the support of the community. He noted that Kristi’s popularity and her relationship with the community seemed to be a major contributor to her success.
“It’s a huge deal,” Butcher said. “I think that’s a huge importance in this town. I think a lot of the locals want to support local, but they don’t want to support somebody that comes in that doesn’t support their community also. If some out-of-town corporation came in and opened this place up, I don’t know how successful it would be.
“I’m hoping, since I live in the community and want to be involved in the community, that it’ll be a benefit. If I support them, then they’ll support me.”
Butcher said customer feedback has been largely positive thus far.
“I’ve got quite a few people on Facebook that are following and stuff, which is good,” he said. “And I’ve talked to a couple other business owners in town and they’re excited for me and waiting to see how we do and what we bring in.”
Butcher said he is open to community feedback, as he wants to make this business a two-way street.
“If someone has an idea and they want to share it with me, I’ll listen,” Butcher said. “You never know what might work and what might not.”
He also wants to make this shop his own. While he spoke highly of Layton, who had accrued a strong reputation in her time as owner, he looks forward to giving the shop a new feel.
“We want to put our own stamp on it and make it our own,” Butcher said. “But we also know that Kristi has been a big part of this community and a lot of people love her.
“So it’s not one of those things where we need to rush in there and make our own mark and try to erase what she did, because she had support and people who loved her, so we can just move from there and build our own brand.”
Just before 8 a.m. on Friday, with the morning sun shining brightly through the shop’s windows, a man purchased a cinnamon roll and a vanilla donut with white icing.
He stepped up to the counter, which now includes a credit card reader, and greeted Butcher.
“Thanks for coming in,” Butcher said back, smiling as he bagged the two pastries.
“We’re glad you’re back,” the man said in response.
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