For the past six years, The Brick Coffee House has been serving breakfast, lunch and freshly brewed coffee to Downtown workers, residents and visitors.
Diane Rukab already had a background in Downtown dining after growing up in the business. Her parents owned and operated a sandwich shop in EverBank Center when it was called the BellSouth Building and another 1980s eatery, “The Oasis,” which was a breakfast and lunch landmark near Hemming Plaza.
Marriage and three children took Rukab out of the business for the 10 years she devoted to being a stay-at-home mom, she said.
Eventually, she wanted to return to the business world. Rukab taught at a preschool and then worked at a mortgage office before making the decision to get back into the restaurant business.
She scouted locations Downtown for two years before leasing space along West Adams Street in the Ed Ball Building. Rukab said at the time the location appealed to her because it was inside a city office building and just a few blocks from the construction site of the new Duval County Courthouse.
Business started growing as soon as the door to the coffee shop opened. Rukab said with so many people working in the building, she sees many of the same faces at breakfast and lunch.
When the new courthouse opened, business didn’t increase as much as she thought it might.
“It’s very close to the shop, but most people only have half an hour for lunch. The courthouse is so big, it takes 15 minutes to get out of the building, so by the time they get here, their break is over,” Rukab said.
Between regular customers in the Ed Ball Building and nearby offices and the increased business that came from EverBank moving Downtown, business at The Brick has steadily grown.
When she opened the restaurant, Rukab experimented with the lunch menu, offering different daily specials to figure out what appealed most to her customers.
In the past six years, she said, more than 10 menu items have become popular enough to be featured regularly, so the daily lunch special is on a two-week rotation.
On Friday, the lunch special was a potato-crusted fish sandwich.
“We’ll be offering a meatless dish on Fridays for the Lenten season,” Rukab said.
Often when a restaurant concept succeeds, the next step is to open a second location. Rukab said that might be a possibility, but not until her children graduate from high school in a few years.
“They could work their way through college at The Brick II,” she said.
It’s possible the family trait for urban core food service and hospitality might be passed to the next generation.
“When it’s in your blood, it’s in your blood,” Rukab said.
The Brick is open 6:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday. Call (904) 354-9945 for takeout and catering. On Facebook, “like” The-Brick-Coffee-House for daily lunch special updates.
(904) 356-2466