Community members come together to support Bryan business
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – One Bryan business was up against a big challenge this week, but the community came together to show its support through a series of social media posts.
Martin’s Place, located on South College Avenue, had their phone lines. Since their phone line is connected to their credit card machine, they could not accept credit cards. Both their phone lines and credit card machine was broken for three days.
Steve Kapchinskie, owner of Martin’s Place, explained how big of a challenge this really was.
“That’s 80 percent of our business, a phone and credit card. We were down this week, about 70%,” said Kapchinskie.
This was after Martin’s Place already experienced a few bumps in the road, road work in front of their building in 2017 and then the pandemic in 2020.
“We were slowly getting back until this down here and I said ‘Oh no, not again,’” said Kapchinskie.
That is when the community rose together. A post made on Facebook detailed the situation Martin’s Place was in and asked community members for help.
“I love walking in here and feeling like a little boy again, you know. I grew up in Bryan Texas/Brazos County, so waking in here still being called Chucky, feeling like this is home. A little old place like this,” said Brazos County resident, Chuck Konderla.
The post gained attraction overnight as community members started liking, commenting, and sharing.
“What a beautiful community we have that going on,” said Konderla.
Because of the support, Martin’s Place is thriving like never before and they can not wait to reach 100 years of business in 2025.
“We try to make people smile when they eat so they’ll come back and hope we make their day a little bit better by good food,” Kapchinskie. “We’re gonna survive, we’ll be here, we’re gonna definitely make a 100.″
