Sugar ‘n Spice Cheesecake and Coffee

How, when, and why did you start your business?

In 2011, I started Sugar ‘n Spice Cheesecakes by renting commercial kitchen space at the Entrepreneural and Education Center. It was a wonderful place to begin, and allowed me to see if there was even a need for a cheesecake bakery in the area. It wasn’t long before I realized that there definitely was a sweet tooth in Wausau and I had the opportunity to build a licensed commercial kitchen in my own home. This gave me and my husband the opportunity to raise three babies in four years, homeschool during covid, and weather the pandemic while never missing a beat with the business. We actually saw immense amounts of growth from 2020-2022 because we were working from home. This also made the possibility of buying our current building, remodeling, and building it to our exact wants and needs an option because of the customer base we had grown over the years.

What makes your business unique?

Many bake shoppes offer a variety of goodies, but not everyone has 150 different flavors of cheesecake. Pair that with amazing coffee in a pretty and unique environment, and I do feel that Sugar ‘n Spice Cheesecakes is unique to the Wausau Area.

What product/service is your most popular, or what are you are known for?

With Cheesecakes being in the name of the business, it’s pretty clear that we will forever and always be known first and foremost for our cheesecakes. But many people don’t realize we also offer cookies, bars, brownies, and other sweets. Catering corporate events, wholesaling to local restaurants, and endless weddings keep us busy year round.

Why did you locate your business in the Wausau River District?

Within the very first months of starting, it was always our goal to go from a rented kitchen space to a brick in mortar; we just took a crazy long journey in life to get from point A to point B. Add a few kiddos, school loans, a mortgage, job changes, and a pandemic to the mix - we really needed to deal with other priorities first. But during those ten+ years, we knocked on a lot of doors and checked out countless locations and opportunities for the storefront (all ended in tears, closed doors, or relief when it fell through). It wasn’t until I had emotionally given up that working outside of my licensed kitchen at home wasn’t going to happen that this location became an option. And oddly enough, it was only out of good manners and not wanting to be a no show to the realtor of the old fish market that I even bothered to look - it wasn’t a building I had on my radar whatsoever. I never even knew this place existed nor had I considered this to be where I wanted to grow my roots. However, the second my husband saw it, he knew the potential this building had. And while I wasn’t on board at first, we sat down and allowed ourselves to dream up the perfect storefront, commercial kitchen, and space.

We ran into the tail end of the Covid supply issues with large equipment that held up the process for over six months. But when all was said and done, we closed on the property in February of 2022 and opened to the public in December of that same year.

What motivates you? How do you measure/define success?

I'm sure what motivates any person is never a one word answer. And I’m going to be no different. Obviously the common categories that make us do what we due usually involve money, success, and notoriety. While those things have been a tiny ‘surprising’ part of our journey (I still find it hilarious when I over hear people whispering that I’m the cheesecake lady when I’m out and about) what I enjoy even more is that I really like my job - like really, really like baking!  (Lucky for me, I offer a consumable product and can literally see the same people come in six days a week for their coffee). I enjoy having a chance to be a small part of people’s celebrations, weddings, birthdays, and even honoring their passing at funerals. But even giving a person a small bite of joy on a rainy Tuesday makes me happy. Most of all I’m in utter shock that the gifts God has given me is one that brings happiness to others. Plus I get to make a living doing something I absolutely love to do. Can’t get much better than that.

How do you generate new ideas?

Maybe the question should really be where do I NOT get ideas. New recipes and flavors can be inspired from the back of a cereal box, to a commercial on tv between the Brewers innings, to fan suggestions, or even down to me standing in front of our pantry to see what we have on hand. Now let me say: some ideas are definitely better than others. Some might just be happy accidents.

But when it comes to big business ideas, my wheels are always spinning. Over the years when looking at all the different locations we had considered, I had to pivot and tweak my business plans to make it work.  By the end of ten years, I literally could have a baseline of a business model within ten minutes that was perfect to that location. Guess I also really like business too.

Talk about your staff.

So this was a new one for me. For the last ten years, I was responsible for absolutely everything, from the customer service, messaging, ordering, baking, cleaning, inventory, and marketing. I remember opening last December and working 20 hours a day between open hours and baking at the house even though I had a perfectly usable, larger commercial kitchen here along with staff to help. But… teaching someone else something that only I had ever created or known was really personal. Having someone come along side me and ‘help’ was difficult until one day I realized how empowering it was to train someone what I knew, and in turn I accomplish something else that no one was yet trained to do.

We have had staff come and go already in our first year. Every departure is difficult and replacing is even more of a challenge. But one thing that I have done in this business is to trust that God will provide the right people and the right time for as long as He finds best. And one of the most amazing things has happened in trusting this process is that for every five star review we have gotten on our products, we have gotten at least one for how amazing, helpful, kind, and sincere the staff has been. That’s more of a compliment than nice words about the decor of the shop.

What excites you most about the future of the district?

After being here now for a year, I love our location. I’m excited to see things happening in this area and would like to imagine that five years from now that we will be one of those founding pillars for growth.