A party four years in the making: Café Rica to celebrate 'first' birthday downtown Thursday

BATTLE CREEK — It's a party four years in the making.

Yes, after first welcoming customers inside their downtown coffee shop at 62 E. Michigan Ave. on Leap Day in 2020, Café Rica owners Jackson and Tristan Bredehoft are inviting the community Thursday to join them in celebrating the coffee shop's "first" birthday at the downtown location.

Festivities will include buy one, get one half off lattes and espresso drinks all day Thursday, special birthday cookies as well as a mug club sale, with opportunities to purchase a lifetime membership.

To further mark the occasion, Tristan and Jackson will be behind the bar Thursday, serving up drinks, "just like old times." A special birthday brunch, complete with birthday cake stuffed pancakes, is planned for Saturday at the coffee shop.

"It feels great (to reach this milestone). The community that we have cultivated and grown is amazing," Tristan said. "We absolutely love being downtown.

"Initially, we never thought about having a food service or a retail business, we were planning on doing all wholesale," he continued. "But throughout the years of building those relationships and kind of navigating what the market was desiring, we have steered into being this hub for people to come have a good time, meet people here, build even more relationships that help us grow our community. It just feels amazing to be part of that."

It was kind of a joke at first.

The Bredehoft brothers were chatting about coffee one day in 2016 when they began toying with the idea of importing their father's favorite coffee beans — from Cafe Naranjo, a co-op of small-scale coffee growers in Costa Rica — and selling them online.

"We never really expected that it would go any further than just selling coffee online," Jackson told the Enquirer. "We had no expectations."

The online business, dubbed Café Rica, soon included glass bottles of Jackson's own cold brew coffee.

Subsequent stints at the pop-up marketplace BC Cargo and retail food service incubator kiCH(ə)n allowed the brothers to grow the business beyond its digital footprint, culminating with the opening of Café Rica in a more permanent downtown location — complete with food and cocktails — at 62 E. Michigan Ave. in 2020.

The early days at the new location were interesting, to say the least, as the coronavirus brought indoor dining to a halt in mid-March.

"We did a lot of community building and we did a lot of social media posts and things like that, (things) that involved our community," Jackson explained. "That was really one of our biggest marketing strategies, really from the beginning, even at the cargo unit, was to build up our presence in the community to build, I guess for a lack of a better term, a fan club or a good following."

The Bredehofts did plenty of pivoting during that time, quickly positioning themselves to accommodate online orders amid an uncertain future for indoor dining.

"I think really the biggest outcome of COVID for us was we actually got to take a step back and figure out the direction we wanted our business to go, because we had time to slow down and plan instead of just kind of winging it," Jackson said. "The downtime during COVID allowed us to figure out what our speciality was, what our x-factor is, and build it from there, which is bagel breakfast sandwiches, quesadillas, tostadas."

The Bredehofts are also intent on providing a launching pad for local entrepreneurs themselves. Breaking Bred Bazaar, an open-air marketplace launched by the brothers in 2022, has allowed countless makers and artisans to sell their wares downtown along Michigan Avenue during the summer months.

So, what are the Bredehofts most proud of to this point?

The community they've built.

The events of a few weeks ago, when an officer-involved shooting occurred inside the coffee shop, proved that even more.

"We had a tremendous level of support from everybody in the community," Jackson said. "As soon as we reopened, we were full and packed and busy. It was really impressive and humbling to see that kind of response."

Contact reporter Greyson Steele at gsteele@battlecreekenquirer.com

This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Café Rica to celebrate 'first' birthday downtown on Leap Day