A decade in the making. We’re going back to our roots.It started with a long drive and a good snack.
Kaitlin and Eddie, Plum Lake, Wisconsin.
It started with a long drive and a good snack.Milwaukee, 2012.
We met in 2012 at Alterra’s Foundry cafe in Milwaukee’s Fifth Ward, and spent most of the years after that driving around Wisconsin and the country hunting down the best bakeries, cafes, and roadside food we could find. Somewhere in there, sharing a good snack in a beautiful place became our focus.
We started by baking a small lineup of our favorites out of our own kitchen for farmers’ markets, as the “Sweetfern Snack Stand.”
Then we stopped driving home.
After nearly fifteen years between Milwaukee and later Madison, the drive back down from the Northwoods after a long weekend started to feel wrong. When Kaitlin stumbled on a listing for a tiny cafe in Plum Lake being used as a house, we drove up the same day. It became our home, and the launching pad for this project.
people come up here for memorable days outside. the food should be memorable too.
We moved across the street and the shack is in full swing.We moved across the street. The build is in full swing.
Luck was on our side and we picked up the neighboring property, so the little cafe gets to be a cafe again. That’s the shack. We’ve got a short commute now.
We’re moving things into the cafe and finishing the build-out. We couldn’t be more excited. We’ll see you in 2027.
Handmade mugs
Thrown and glazed by Kaitlin. No two alike, all of them good for coffee on the porch.
The project log
Recent progress.How it’s going.
- First market, St. Germain, WI.
- Baby Finnley, our future employee, is born.
- Kaitlin wins $10,000 grant for new kitchen equipment.
- Doors open. Weekends to start.
- NextWe’ll name the date the minute we know it. Join the opening list.