A Sweet Third Space: Coffee Shop/Bakeries Where Friends Gather

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Right before Noreen Ovadia moved into her remodeled Café Coco – Artisan Bakery & Good Eats in 2011, she realized that she hadn’t budgeted for chairs.

No matter. She simply put a sign outside her Washburn, Wisconsin, business asking for chairs. She paid $20 for one or two seats, but community members brought in the rest, trading their extra furniture for sandwiches, sweets and Coco gift certificates. Now Noreen can seat 47 people in her café and bakery, which serves as a “third space” – a place that’s not work and not home – for locals to gather in the small town.

“It’s basically a place where grownups hang out,” says Noreen.

Café Coco is one example of the local coffee shop/bakeries where you can go to relax with tasty sandwiches, luscious treats and rich coffee. Such spots lure locals and travelers alike, with wonderful bread and pastry aromas and a friendly atmosphere.

There’s usually something that makes each one unique – be it the owner’s personality or outstanding baguettes, but a couple of key ingredients unite them: They bake their food from scratch and community folk gather in them.

Coco is a role model for this style of café; it’s the kind of place with regulars, where locals bring their out-of-town visitors. During the business lulls of the day, people hold meetings here. If you need to get something to another local, you probably can drop it off at Coco with a note and it’ll get where it’s supposed to go.

Although Coco fills an obvious niche in the community, Noreen initially resisted the idea of opening her own place in Washburn.

“People would say, ‘Washburn needs a bakery,’” she laughs. “And I would say, ‘No, it doesn’t.’”

Noreen has spent much of her career in Minnesota and Wisconsin’s culinary industry. After helping start five restaurants as an employee, she wasn’t sure she had another one in her. But in 2008, after extensive market research and support from the local government officials who wanted to see the deserted 100 block of West Bayfield Street revitalized, Noreen took the plunge into bakery ownership.

Coco started as a small bakery with seating for nine. The business has grown, with her husband, Nick Wills, doing all the remodeling. But you still order breakfast and lunch at the counter, with deli sandwiches and soup available until closing, usually by 7 p.m. Cinnamon rolls, scones, turnovers, brownies and other desserts are on hand, and Coco does cake orders and catering.

At Coco, the focus is on made-from-scratch food prepared with local ingredients, says Noreen. The bakery uses local berries to make jams, and the whole wheat flour in its baked goods is milled just 5 miles down the road at Maple Hill Farm. Often, customers bring in their garden produce. In springtime, Noreen just puts out a sign asking for rhubarb and trades customers $2 in gift certificate credit for every pound of it.

With two immigrant parents – a Norwegian mother and Greek father – Noreen feels it’s important to provide a variety of ethnic items on her menu. The business does a lot of recipes inspired by the community’s Norwegian, Swedish and German heritage. Each week, Coco has a “Pasty Wednesday,” and at Christmastime the staff makes lefse and English-style fruitcake with brandy and black currants.

Jack Stewart stops in every couple of days for a scone and cup of Earl Grey. As a Scotsman, Jack considers himself a bit of a scone connoisseur, and says the café exceeds expectations. He even brings the scones to meetings of the Duluth Scottish Heritage Association.

Coco is a nice place with nice people, says Jack, and catches up with friends during his regular visits. “It’s my real-life Facebook,” he says.

Northeast across the Big Lake in Thunder Bay, Julie Einarson also saw the need for a “third space” in her community. There was no locally run spot for a slice of cake and a coffee.

“Tim Horton’s is kind of in and out for coffee and treats,” Julie says. “And if you want to get together with your girlfriends, you don’t want to just order coffee and a slice of cake at a restaurant. That doesn’t seem quite right.”

In March 2013, she decided to fill the “hole in the market,” launching Sweet Escape Cake Café and Bakery in the city’s Bay and Algoma neighborhood. She serves tea, coffee and made-from-scratch sweets, including macaroons, cupcakes, cakes, brownies and cookies. Julie, who worked with a French pastry chef at a bakery in Winnipeg, offers whole cakes by special order.

“I love that I can walk in, be greeted with a smile and offered suggestions on what is new, different or simply extra delicious that day,” says Sweet Escape regular Jesse Roberts. “(Sweet Escape) has also made the Bay-Algoma area more of a destination for me on a regular basis.”

Julie has garnered recognition from her peers. In April, Sweet Escape won two 2014 business awards, for customer service and commitment to quality, from the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce. Julie says it was “such an honor, especially in your first year of business, to be recognized like that.”

Beyond creating a cozy space for people to enjoy a treat, Julie cultivates other local connections. She uses flour from a local miller, serves locally roasted coffee and stocks tea from the International House of Tea shop just around the corner from her café. On Thursdays, a local tea leaf reader comes in, and Julie uses the shop walls to display local artwork.

With the rise of one-stop shopping at box stores, people rarely have an opportunity to get to know their butcher or baker anymore, which is a shame, says Julie. “You lose that contact with the person who’s making your food.”

Julie says she hopes her shop will rekindle the human connections that make neighborhoods thrive. As a new enterprise, Julie says she’s still figuring out business patterns, but is pleased to have been so well-received by the community. The feeling seems to be mutual.

“I knew all the staff by name on about my third or fourth visit,” says regular customer Gwen Larouche Mills. “They genuinely care about their customers and they make great recommendations. It is one of the friendliest places I have been to in this city.”

Even more than delicious, made-from-scratch local food, those friendly faces keep Coco and Sweet Escape customers coming back. In an age where people tend to maintain social connections online, or virtually rather than in person, these businesses provide a local gathering spot where neighbors catch up face to face and feed the soul.

Sweet Spots

Here is a sample of bakery/coffee shops around the Big Lake that make treats or breads on-site. Do you have a favorite we missed? Leave a comment below.

Amazing Grace Bakery and Café, 394 S. Lake Ave., Duluth. 218-723-0075, amazinggraceduluth.com

Babycakes, 223 W. Washington St., Marquette. 906-226-7744, babycakesmuffincompany.com

Beaner’s Central, 324 N. Central Ave., Duluth. 218-624-5957, beanerscentral.com

Black Cat Coffeehouse, 211 Chapple Ave., Ashland, Wisconsin. 715-682-3680, blackcatashland.com. Ashland Baking Co. across the street has the same owner and supplies Black Cat with baked goods.

Café Coco – Artisan Bakery & Good Eats, 146 W. Bayfield St. (Hwy. 13), Washburn, Wisconsin. 715-373-2253, coconorth.com

Dead River Coffee, 119 W. Baraga Ave., Marquette. 906-226-2112, deadrivercoffee.com

Red Mug Coffeehouse, 916 Hammond Ave., Superior. 715-392-2662, redmugcoffee.com

Sweet Escape Cake Café and Bakery, 271 Bay St., Unit 2, Thunder Bay, Ontario. 807-344-7668, Facebook.