Menomonee Falls Bakery Plans Bay View Location

Batter & Mac‘s four-year journey has been one marked by constant growth, and its latest expansion will introduce the bakery to a new audience with a second location set for Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood.

Sisters Brittany Wohlfeil and Kasey Gusho, both successful hobby bakers, joined forces to open Batter & Mac in 2022, operating the bakery out of a tiny storefront in Menomonee Falls.

The business rapidly outgrew its original space, prompting the sisters to expand with an ambitious buildout at N89 W16750 Appleton Ave., also in Menomonee Falls. The location remains open today, offering a full range of sweet treats, along with a seating area and space to host cooking classes and events.

Earlier this summer, the sisters were presented with an opportunity to expand once again, this time into the former home of Canfora/Lakeside Bakery at 1100 E. Oklahoma Ave.

“We always thought we would like to have a second location, but we thought that was three or maybe four years away,” Wohlfeil said.

But when a new owner purchased the Bay View building and sought a bakery to fill it, “we kind of mutually agreed that we were a good fit for the space and for the community.”

The sisters recognize — and honor — the previous bakery’s legacy, but said they won’t attempt to replicate it. Instead, the business will stay true to its own brand while remaining equally committed to the community.

“I don’t want people to think we’re going to be exactly the same,” Wohlfeil said. “We have our own products and our own recipes. We’re going to try to incorporate some of those classic Italian bakery things that everyone loved at Canfora and Lakeside, but that’s not really our usual lineup.”

Instead, Batter & Mac focuses on macarons — Gusho’s specialty — as well as artfully decorated cakes, brownies and bars, cookies, tarts, hot ham and rolls and breakfast pastries such as croissants, doughnuts, muffins, fritters and cinnamon rolls.

The upcoming location also plans to continue the Batter & Mac tradition of raising money for a different charity each month. Past recipients have included JR’S Pups N Stuff, Courage MKE, America’s Black Holocaust Museum and others. August’s fundraiser will support the Menomonee Falls School District’s effort to retire school lunch debt.

“We try to do those charitable things for the community, because we wouldn’t exist without the community,” Wohlfeil said. “It’s the community who comes in and buys our stuff, so we try to give back in any way that we can.”

Wohlfeil, a nurse practitioner by trade, picked up cake making as a hobby during the pandemic. Though she’s “always liked to bake,” she got serious about the craft in 2020 after making a birthday cake for her daughter, which missed the mark aesthetically.

“It tasted really good, but it didn’t look great,” she said. “And so I started practicing and posting about it, and then all of a sudden I was doing orders for porch pickups for friends, and then friends of friends, and it just kind of grew.”

Wohlfeil named her side-hustle Batter MKE, and continued to develop the business while still working full-time as a nurse practitioner — a role she still holds today.

Meanwhile, Gusho was developing her own bakery business, Kasey’s Confections, which specialized in macarons.

“We both kind of came up during COVID, which is wild,” said Wohlfeil, who also spoke highly of her sister’s culinary skills. “She’s so talented, and she’s such a good baker. Her macarons are delicious and beautiful … so it’s awesome to get to work with her every day.”

Gusho has a particular talent for shaped macarons, and has previously created batches in themes like Harry Potter, Disney Princess and Paw Patrol.

Batter & Mac is a family affair for the sisters, two of seven siblings. Another sibling also works at the bakery, and their mom is a co-owner.

The Bay View bakery is tentatively slated to open in mid-October, said Wohlfeil, noting that the space still needs a number of updates. “As quickly as that moves is how fast we will open,” she said.

The new location plans to start slow, and won’t offer community events or classes — at least not right away. Wohlfeil said that could change in the future.

For now, though, she’s focused on opening with minimal delays. “I have a feeling people are going to keep us busy, so there might not be time for that kind of stuff anyway,” she said.

“We’re just really excited to get up and running and to meet everybody out there, and hopefully jump into some of the traditions from Lakeside, but then introduce people to our stuff — and maybe try some new traditions, too.”

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