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Grill-your-own steak returns to downtown
News · December 21, 2005
Bruster’s Steaks and Spirits offers just what the name says, plus breakfast
Rob Poggenklass
Once again, West Branch’s downtown has a restaurant that’s open for breakfast and grill-your-own steaks.
Bruster’s Steaks and Spirits opened earlier this month at the site of the former Downtown Family Restaurant on West Main Street. The restaurant and bar features prime rib on Thursday nights, grill-your-own steaks on Fridays and Saturdays and breakfast seven days a week.
Bruster’s is owned by Coralville resident Bruce Schilling, 43, who’s been eyeing the location ever since he sold food to the previous occupants as a vendor for H&H Foodservice.
“I’ve always wanted a restaurant,” said Schilling, who became enamored with the people of West Branch and the downtown location. “I thought, ‘When he’s gone, I’m in here.’”
Schilling eventually hopes to purchase the downtown building where the restaurant is located. The building is owned by Jim and Sandy Weldon.
This is the first restaurant for Schilling, who worked for 15 years as a meat cutter at Hy-Vee and Fareway. At Bruster’s, Schilling will cut all the steaks himself, including the prime rib.
“That’s my baby,” he said.
The menu is still in the works but burgers look to be an instrumental part so far. Bruster’s Burger is a half-pound piece of beef with sauteed onions, pepperjack cheese and barbeque sauce, served with fries for $4.75. The restaurant also features a belly-buster fish filet for the same price.
Schilling, who has a wife and three children, will be aided at Bruster’s by head cook and manager Shane Briggman. Briggman has 17 years of restaurant experience, including Cooper’s Mill in Cedar Rapids, and Shack Tavern and McBride’s Landing, both in Solon. The two men became friends when Briggman cooked at McBride’s Landing and Schilling sold him food. That’s when Schilling approached Briggman with the idea of opening a restaurant “someday soon.”
“I told him, I’m going to own a restaurant someday,” Schilling said. “Whatever you do, just don’t get tied down somewhere.”
The restaurant has a staff of about 15. Schilling and Briggman said they’ve been especially pleased so far with the high school students they’ve hired, noting that the young people are willing to work and work hard.
Schilling, Briggman and their friends spent five weeks remodeling the interior of the restaurant, which features red walls and a divider that allows parties in the back section. They also constructed their first bar, which has Budweiser on tap starting at 4 p.m.
Preparing the charcoal grill was more work than they’d have hoped. A Mexican restaurant that recently occupied the building attempted to use the grill as an aquarium and filled the area with silicone. All that’s been cleaned out, and the grill is cooking steaks.
Schilling said he’ll remain flexible on the menu for a while, as he discovers what West Branchers like to eat.
“We still want to find our niche,” he said, adding that he does know one thing for sure about his new place. “We want portions large. We don’t want anybody to leave hungry.”
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