The Coffee Pub, 2800 W. Sahara Ave, Suite 2A, has been a local mainstay for many years and has somehow become the unofficial spot for movers and shakers to convene for breakfast and lunch.
Marty Brees built the place in 1984 after deciding to leave California and his career as a flight attendant.
The cafe, one of the first to offer outdoor patio seating, wasn't always a happening place.
"It was a good five years before it did anything," Brees said. "The first year I was way in the red, the third year I finally broke even."
Brees got into the restaurant business because he didn't know what else to do with his life, he said. And his original idea of the Coffee Pub was to be a coffee shop that just had counter service.
"The idea was that you would go up to the counter and order, and you got your pastry on a paper plate," Brees said. "But the first day we opened, people came in and just sat down. It was weird. So everyone was scrambling trying to take orders and set places," he said, chuckling.
This caused the staff to panic a bit since there were no real plates or eating utensils that weren't made of plastic or paper, but they made it work and knew what to expect from that day on, Brees said. And so his idea of a counter-service-only cafe became a sit-down eatery.
"Then it ended up turning into a political haven," he said. "All the politicians, mayors, governors and local celebrities were making it their regular spot."
Brees said that throughout the years he ended up forming acquaintances with several of the politicians that came in on a regular basis.
One of his more humorous memories concerning a local politician involves Gov. Kenny Guinn. Brees said he was calculating Guinn's check, which came out to be around $19. This was in 2003 when Guinn and other state lawmakers were trying to get the largest tax increase in Nevada history passed.
"So I totaled up the meals and then I wrote 'with the new Guinn tax' and put the tax down as being like $21.95, more than the actual check, and gave it to him," Brees said. "He smiled and laughed a little bit."
But, after more than 20 years in the same occupation, Brees grew weary of the restaurant business and sold the restaurant in August.
"It was just time for me to do something different, I had been there for 21 years," he said. "I needed a change."
Brees now owns the juice bars in the Las Vegas Athletic Clubs and is planning on becoming a franchisee and opening Zone cafes based on the Zone diet, a diet that focuses on balance, nutrition and flavorful food, according to Brees.
Robyn Titus, the manager at the Coffee Pub, said the current owner, Kyun Ki Kim, plans on keeping things the same while making small improvements.
"I think the only thing he wants to update is the interior," Titus said. "But I think he'll do it slowly, just make the place look a little nicer. It is 21 years old. There will be a face lift done over a period of time so the place doesn't lose its charm."
Titus has seen many relationships come to fruition in the 16 years she has been at the restaurant, which adds to the nature of the charm, she said. Some friendships and some romances.
"The business we have here is about 90 percent regulars," she said sitting in the cafe. "I probably know the names of 90 some percent of the people in here. And there have been a lot of romances that have happened here, too. Two of our employees have even met their husbands here."
The Coffee Pub will remain the same despite being under new ownership. Many customers are still unaware of the change because there have been no real alterations, Titus said.
However, a recent announcement from The Curve, the high-rise condominium project slated to break ground in January between Durango and Sunset roads near the Las Vegas Beltway, stated that a second Coffee Pub will be opening in the development in 2007.
David Lee, owner of the cafe at The Curve, said he intends to keep the core ideas of the original Coffee Pub.
"There will be no major changes," Lee said. "I just want to make maybe a nicer atmosphere, more contemporary, there will be a patio all around, stay with the California style cafe. We might add an early dinner though, but nothing too late."
Because of the distance between the proposed and current locations, there should be little to no competition between the two, Lee said.
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