Confectionately Yours Cafe serves up coffee, casual breakfast and a ray of sunshine
It's called the steak bagel, but I think of the breakfast-menu item at the new Confectionately Yours Cafe as one of Milwaukee's tastiest burgers, dressed for breakfast.
It builds on well-seasoned ground beef with scrambled egg, melted cheese and grilled onions, the flavor boosted with Worcestershire sauce; it's stacked on a soft bagel that absorbs the sandwich's juices as best it can. It's finger-licking good, put it that way.
Some customers stop in for the bagel every day, owner Adija Smith said. I understand their cravings completely.
Her cafe is in the Legacy Building, 1920 N. King Drive. Dating to 1900, the two-story building has been completely refreshed and part of an increasingly vibrant Bronzeville neighborhood.
After the renovation, which started in 2019, it now houses the African-American Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, which moved its offices there from downtown. It also has co-working space.
Part of the plan for the building from the beginning was to have a coffee shop on the first floor near the entrance.
The cafe debuted with limited hours in October, leaving Smith enough time for her Confectionately Yours by GGG bakery during the holidays, the Sherman Phoenix bakery's busiest time.
Now, cafe hours are 7 to noon on Monday and until 11 a.m. Tuesday through Friday, and Smith is hoping to extend hours even further soon.
Cafe customers will find a rotating selection of Confectionately Yours' baked goods displayed at the counter where customers order — items like generous slabs of fudgey brownies, oversized chocolate chip cookies, and tender muffins, such as streusel-topped blueberry. Pastry boxes can be ordered in advance, to be picked up on the way to work.
Any order can be placed in advance online (it's best to do so if diners are in a hurry to get to work).
The menu is brief but designed to stick to your ribs (breakfast is the most important meal of the day, you know) and to be portable. Several seats are available at the counter, but most customers take their orders to go.
Orders like the Dough Boy, a combination of savory and sweet. A raised doughnut is the delivery system for hash brown potatoes, cheese, a fried egg and a choice of bacon or turkey or pork sausage. It's a sandwich that Smith used to serve at her Sherman Phoenix bakery and, she noted, customers can order the sugar glaze applied with a light or heavy hand (or not at all).
Other items include a hot croissant sandwich with ham or turkey and cheese, Philly melt or grilled cheese, made with several kinds of Wisconsin cheese. Diners can order the breakfast potatoes on their own or with egg or turkey, ham or bacon — Smith said her family called them smothered potatoes, sauteed and seasoned.
Prices range from $3.50 for just the potatoes to $9 for the steak bagel; most food items are under $8.
Breakfast calls for coffee (or tea — that's available, too), and the cafe has drip coffee with beans from a local roaster, plus barista Maxine Balboa making espresso drinks of all kinds with impressively good cheer. She's like a ray of pure sunshine piercing a cloudy winter's day.
Balboa has worked in the cafes of local roasters and knows coffee — and knows that people are particular about how they like it.
"Maxine, this is her background," Smith said. "She’s very intentional about every cup that she makes."
Customers have taken note that Smith makes her espresso drinks with love, Smith said, adding, "It’s in alignment with everything else we offer."
CONFECTIONATELY YOURS CAFE
1920 N. King Drive
Fare: Breakfast and lunch sandwiches, breakfast pastries and cookies, coffee, esspresso drinks, strawberry lemonadeAtmosphere: Counter-service cafe with a few seats at the coffee bar.Hours: 7 a.m. to noon Monday, 7 to 11 a.m. Tuesday to Friday; hours might expand past lunch soon. Prices: $3.50 for basic breakfast potatoes to $9 for a steak bagelParking: On streetWheelchair access: YesPayment: Credit cards and cashOf special note: Online ordering through Clover and GrubHub, which also offers delivery. Orders and pastry boxes also can be made online the website under the contact tab.
Carol Deptolla has been reviewing restaurants in Milwaukee and Wisconsin since 2008. Like all Journal Sentinel reporters, she buys all meals, accepts no gifts and is independent of all establishments she covers, working only for our readers.
Contact her at carol.deptolla@jrn.com or (414) 224-2841, or through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_diner.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Confectionately Yours Cafe, Milwaukee, serves coffee, casual breakfast
