Bruegger's closes in downtown

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Jun 15, 2004 | by Cahalan, Steve

Bruegger's Bagels restaurant at 328 Main St. closed Sunday afternoon after about five years in business in downtown La Crosse.

One owner said Monday they made the move to focus on their two Rochester, Minn., locations and due to increased competition for both lunch and weekend leisure business.

J. Kurt Schreck and his wife, Kari, of Lake City, Minn., opened the LaCrosse bagel restaurant in October 1999. They and Schreck's brother, David "Jim" Schreck of Midland, Mich., owned it when it closed.

"For us, it was a strategic matter," Schreck said. "We're in Rochester with two locations. Being a small company, we really needed to focus our limited resource,; on the market that we're most established in."

Business has been better at the two Rochester restaurants than it was in La Crosse, Schreck said. Ile attributed that to an increase in the number of downtown La Crosse restaurants, which affected Bruegger's lunch business, and to an increase in the number of coffee shops, which affected its weekend leisure business.

The Schrecks have been leasing the downtown building, which previously was a McDonald's restaurant. "I don't believe it (the building) will be vacant for too terribly long," Schreck said. There are about 250 Bruegger's locations in 18 states. Bruegger's Corp., which sells franchises, is based in Burlington, Vt.