5 minutes with Britni Kawa, A&G co-owner

AGE: 32

HOMETOWN: Creston

FAMILY: Jake, my husband, who is co-owner with me, and then we have two daughters, Breckyn, 5, and Bradley, 2.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU OWNED A&G? It was July 18 of 2016, so a year and a few months now.

WHAT’S BEEN THE BEST PART ABOUT COMING BACK HOME? Obviously to see the changes. I’ve been gone since I was 18. I came back when I was 31, so it’s nice to see the change in the town itself, watching the town grow as a whole. It’s nice to see people I graduated with come back.

FAVORITE PART ABOUT OWNING A&G: Staff and watching the change. Coming in, obviously we knew what we had to change right away and what we could work on slowly. Watching the change in the business itself, it’s fun to watch it progress. With staff, we do have some staff that’s been here for years and stayed with us, and we do have some new people too. It’s fun to train staff to our expectations.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST CHANGE YOU’VE MADE HERE SO FAR? Honestly, probably the building itself. Structurally and architecturally, a lot has changed. The party room and game room was one of the biggest changes. That, and the bathrooms was the No. 1 thing we had heard that people are so excited about that. The change with the menu, too. It had been pretty consistent for the past 40 years.

FAVORITE ITEM ON THE MENU: Probably our loaded mac. That is something my husband and I came up with together and it is pretty much to a T his recipe. He makes our cheese sauce in house. We do it with roasted corn and bacon in it and we top it off with a breaded loin. It’s pretty money if you haven’t had it yet.

BEST SELLING ITEM ON YOUR MENU: Probably our loaded mac. Gyros still are one of our top sellers and then pizza and wings.

HOBBIES: Anything outdoors. I love to go camping and hiking. I love playing outside with my kids. It’s fall, so pumpkin patches, fall leaves, walks. I love sports. Jake and I are both big Cubs fans, so we love to go to baseball games.

FAVORITE MOVIE: Honestly, probably “Bad Moms,” because I’m a mom. It’s trying to find that balance between work and family and life, so it’s easy to relate to that.

IF YOU HAD TO CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT CRESTON, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Just to see changes to our uptown businesses. I would like to see the businesses come back to uptown. When I was in high school, that was the thing to do the loop, and when you came uptown and you did that, you would see all these people walking up and down the streets, which reminds me of Iowa City. It would be nice to bring businesses back to uptown and not just out on the highway.