Buying a 51-year-old business would be a big step for anybody, but it was especially hard for Brian Kapphan and his wife after finding out that none of the appliances worked.

“I was 23 years old when we bought the Top Notch Café; it used to be an old fashioned ice cream parlor,” Kapphan said.  There was no phone, only a pay phone, and none of the kitchen appliances worked, which made Kapphan’s dream that much harder to reach. He bought the building and was forced to close it for a month just to fix it up.

“I love to cook and I had always wanted my own restaurant, working for people just isn’t as rewarding,” Kapphan said.

The hardest part of running a business for Kapphan is the financial aspect, “to make sure it keeps running, [he] owns the building, but insurance is still expensive,” he said. The Top Notch Café is open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day except for Christmas and Thanksgiving. The Kapphans don’t take any vacations — they “just go to the park after closing as a vacation.”

The most rewarding part of owning a business for Kapphan is “the customers, meeting all kinds of new people and making good connections and friendships over the years,” he said. But the cooking has never changed since the first day. Kapphan’s favorite meal to make is breakfast, but his favorite to eat is his hamburgers.

“We have gotten a lot of loyal customers over the years, and they usually order the same things over and over,” Kapphan said.

Overall it has been a lot of fun for Kapphan.

“Every day is a different challenge, someone laughing someone crying, but everyday it is rewarding.”