Milwaukee Specialty Food and Coffee

Happy (LONG) Memorial Day weekend!

Now that the blog is set up, I'm going to take a week off from posting to take photos and accumulate other content.  I want to emphasize that the gorgeous weather has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with this.

Enjoy those iced drinks!

Oakland Avenue's Willow Creek Coffees Closes

On or about May 15 (right after the end of the semester), Open Pantry's Willow Creek Coffees closed.  It had been open only a little over a year and a half.  I followed this store's life cycle with great interest, as it is very close to where I work.  The Willow Creek concept was launched with great fanfare in 2005, and the store was tweaked a couple times since then (replacing manual espresso machine with Schaerer automatic, adding Santa Fe Burritos).  I don't know what is happening with Willow Creek's other locations, which are in the exurbs.

Though there were indications that the store was not doing as well as hoped, I personally never had a negative experience with their products or service.  I wasn't a regular patron recently (I have issues with Open Pantry as a company), but occasionally enjoyed a sugar-free vanilla steamer, which would have about half a bottle of syrup in it.  *LOL*

Testing, testing, testing. . .1-2-3. . .

Welcome to the Milwaukee Specialty Coffee weblog.  This blog is intended to provide information and discussion about the specialty coffee scene in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Plans call for corporate chain and independent coffee business representatives to be able to post specials and other news by having their own username and password.  Each post will be open to comments from readers, which will be edited only for obscene language and possible legal issues--otherwise, no censorship will take place.  When the number of visitors is sufficient, a weekly "Talk Amongst Yourselves" thread will be launched.  The blog has been started by 34-year-old Milwaukee resident Mike Miller (who will also post occasionally, along with possible future collaborators).