After eight years of wonderful food and a pleasant atmosphere, Piston Broke is saying goodbye to the Brantford community.

Brantford says goodbye to the Piston Broke, and hello to a new bistro in its place. Eloise and Randall Huszczo are moving on from this business to focus on their manufacturing business, R&W Metal Fabricating and Design Inc. However, not all is lost. Ryan Devlin and his father, Chris Devlin, have bought the Piston Broke. They are known in the Brantford Community for their own restaurant and catering business: Devlin’s Country Bistro and Catering.

“Our original plan was to take it over, keep the name and everything the same, operate and get to know the business and switch it as we felt right as time went on,” said Ryan Devlin. “As we came in here and saw the changes that needed to be made and the way we wanted to operate, we started working on those. After deciding the changes, we wanted to make, we decided to change the menu entirely to match what we are good at. To go further, we decided to change the name and incorporate our name and brand into it, given we have a large customer base in the area. We kept the student population in mind because we know it’s a place student’s frequently visit.”

The Devlin’s are aware of the impact the Piston Broke has on the Brantford community, especially among university students. They are planning to cater to both with their new restaurant, Devlin’s Advocate. “We are very gracious of the business [from our customers] and we want them to continue to be good supporters, if not better customers than they were before. We’ve taken the same area and location and changed the décor to be more relaxed and to look like a place where everyone is going to want to come and hang out,” said Devlin.

The Devlin’s are working very hard to make their new restaurant one that everyone will love. “It will be a great place for all students to come to kick back, relax and enjoy some casual beverages and great food. It will have more of a lounge feel than a pub feel,” said Devlin.

The Piston Broke closed on Oct. 8 to make room for the Devlin’s to do renovations. They are trying for a soft opening on Oct. 17, but the grand opening will be on Oct. 21. The process to completely renovate the restaurant has been very fast- “We only got in here this Monday [Oct. 10] so we closed down for a week for renovations, replacing all the floor, repainting the walls, opened up the far room and the bar, but we have lots of long-term plans for renovation. We will be going through a lot of changes the next few months but this is the first phase of construction and decoration,” said Devlin.

Change can be tough but the Devlin’s are planning to keep some things the same. “The decor is welcoming and upbeat. Live music will still remain. We will still offer our student discount of 10 per cent on all food items. There will still be 13 beers on tap. None of that stuff is changing. People will still be able to enjoy all the things they love,” said Devlin.