Cafe 27

I chose to write about the Café 27, a small restaurant in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, because of all of the good things I was hearing from friends and family who had been there to eat or who had heard about it from other friends or family members. What I was hearing was that the owners of this business worked right alongside of their employees making the food, talking to the customers, helping to serve the food once it was made and cleaning up behind themselves from 5:30 A.M. until 5:30 P.M. every weekday except Mondays. I also heard that they took measures to cut their own costs with energy efficiency and acquiring their ingredients so as to cut the costs of their meals and beverages to their customers.

The owners of Café 27 are Denise Brennecke and Tom Wolfe. Denise, however, is the brain behind the concept that created this restaurant. As Tom Wolfe would testify when asked how the business got started, "Denise wanted to finish out her career as a chef. I just wanted something to do." (Heimstead, 2009) Denise had the seed of sustainability planted in her from as early as childhood. She was born and raised on a farm in Iowa and learned much of her way of thinking from her father. He was a hard working man who made it a point to make his deliveries personally to get to know his customers' likes and dislikes and eventually to make some very good friends. He taught Denise "every business transaction is a social interaction" (Moraine, 2009).

After she finished college at the University of Iowa, majoring in dentistry, she moved to Stevens Point, Wisconsin to live. She chose Stevens Point as the place she wanted to live from a random bicycle ride she had taken with some friends while visiting family as a teenager.

She remembered seeing flowering apple trees and found them to be so beautiful that she vowed she would move there someday. After moving to Stevens Point, she worked as a dental hygienist for 11 years. But her true passion was cooking and baking. At the time, her best friend was Claire Kerbel, who eventually started the Earthcrust Bakery in Stevens Point in 1982. They car- pooled together for years and exchanged recipes all of the time. A few years after Claire started the bakery, Denise decided to quit working as a dental hygienist and follow her passion by going into partnership with Claire. While working as co-owner of the Earthcrust Bakery, she incorporated the values instilled in her from home. She got to know all of the local farmers and started getting all of their ingredients from them. The emphasis of the bakery became whole grain products, organics, and sustainability.

The building they used to start their business used to be a warehouse in the 1970's. All that was in it was a wood-burning stove and some couches. The two women had solar panels installed, to be used for their source of heat and energy. They painted the wall that faced south, black to serve as a passive solar hot air system that warmed up the air before it came in and also had a fresh air return. The roof panels provided all of their energy needs except for the operation of the freezers. After eleven years of making baked goods, Denise wanted to expand her talents.

She was approached by Professor Yasha Steinmetz of Dietetics at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point and asked to run the cafeteria on campus in the College of Professional Sciences Building. She was familiar with the sustainability philosophy being used in the bakery, and wanted Denise to carry it over to her students of dietetics. It was exactly what she was trying to teach them. The kitchen was very large, with all of the equipment she could ever dream of using, so Denise agreed to do it. In a radio interview, when Denise was asked if there were any barriers working in a business setting versus a campus setting she stated, "No, not at all." everything was already set up. The only drawback was that I had to schedule out menus ahead so I needed a lot of my ingredients in advance. I would get them from different farmers all at the same time in order to have enough on time. But I showed that it is possible to plan ahead and rely solely on local farmers for all of the produce and other ingredients" (Moraine, 2009).

By making it a mission to personally deal with the farmers and their deliveries, she was able to develop some very dear friendships, and make deals with them, whereby they would grow crops that she requested specifically for her. She was so driven to keep the business local, that she would physically pick berries and other produce in the off seasons and freeze them, so as not to have to import them from elsewhere. During her career on campus, she would teach sustainability to students of the Dietetics Department as they would filter through for internships.

As time went on, Denise wanted to branch out on her own and found a friend who would be willing to go into partnership with her. His name is Tom Wolfe. She had read a cookbook by the name of "Breakfast, Lunch and Tea: The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery" that used the exact philosophy of business practices, sustainability, and social interaction that she wanted to base a business of her own on someday. Rose Bakery is a real bakery that is located in Paris, France. She showed the book to Tom to see what he thought of it. He was so impressed with it that he got airplane tickets for Denise and himself to fly to Paris to see the Rose Bakery for themselves and talk to the owner so as to get more information and pointers for bringing her business ideas