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Gluten-Free Bread and More Every Monday |
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Celiac sufferers rejoice! Coco now features gluten-free bread
every Monday along with gluten-free cookies, brownies, muffins,
and tortes. After months of research, Noreen Ovadia Wills,
Coco’s creative baker, developed a delicious gluten-free loaf
that is worthy of standing beside her other artisan breads. A
limited number of loaves are frozen for sale later in the week.
In addition, a number of Café menu items
are available as gluten-free alternatives.
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Coco’s Strawberry Bread Pudding Recipe on
Star-Tribune Web
Rick Nelson, reporter for the
Minneapolis
Star-Tribune visited Coco last summer. The visit and
Noreen’s strawberry bread pudding so impressed him that
he posted a blog on the paper’s website. He points out
that, after Google, it's the most-read website in
Minnesota. He writes:
“During a trip last summer
to Lake
Superior's south shore, I walked into Noreen
Ovadia's bakery in Washburn, Wis., and immediately hit
the strawberry Mother Lode. It was a fantastic bread
pudding, rich and creamy and bursting with berries that
had been plucked from the farms that stretch out on the
hills high above the neighboring town of Bayfield.
“I've daydreamed about that strawberry-fest on more than
one occasion. In the intervening 12 months since my
visit, Ovadia has expanded her business. Now Cafe
Coco - Artisan Bakery & Good Eats is
serving breakfast and lunch daily. "So far, we've
managed to sell the Chequamegon Bay Area on falafel-lake
trout Ruebens as well as frittatas and 'Really Swell
French Toast with Banana Caramel Sauce,'" she said. Wow.
I'm so booking a return trip.”
Read more of Nelson’s blog and the recipe at startribune.com/taste/blogs
Wedding Cakes
Noreen took a busman's holiday to bake the wedding cake and all the festive food for the wedding of Nick's daughter, Trisha. The cake was delicious, as it was enormous. The groom, Glenn, is 6'4" tall.
Coco makes all sorts of delicious, beautiful, unique wedding cakes including cheese cakes.
T-shirts
Coco fans wear Coco T-shirts. They are available at Café Coco. One says "Just Eat It" on the back, another says "Never Fry Bacon Naked."
Star-Tribune lauds Coco
Some of Coco specialties are praised in a recent Minneapolis-St. Paul
Star-Tribune article about food delights in the Chequamegon Bay
area. Star Tribune writer, Rick Nelson, asks rhetorically, "Is there
another Midwestern getaway that so vigorously celebrates its small cache
of native ingredients?" We answer, we certainly celebrate them at Coco!
Nelson writes
about Coco:
“Over in
Washburn,baker/owner Noreen Ovadia Wills does wicked things with
chocolate, steering it into fudgy, walnut-packed brownies and
diet-busting tortes. Her made-from-scratch philosophy is evident in her
homey lemon bars, simple vanilla cheesecakes and cream-filled Danish.
There are breads, too, and those terrific plate-sized lavash.”
Of course, Nelson mentions Coco's lavash. "It's very
popular," Noreen says, "We can't keep it on the shelves." Our advice:
get to the bakery early.
Key Lime Pie
Illiniois
Coco is Out and About. Visit some of our friends on Madeline Island, Bayfield, Cornucopia, and Ashland. See where the élite meet.
The
croquembouche,
pictured above, is a special Coco creation for a wedding. The
cone-shaped assembly of light cream-filled French pastry is decorated
with threads of caramel. It is delicious and beautiful. The name comes
from the French words croque en bouche meaning 'crunch in the
mouth'.
Fan Mail
I was in your bakery again this past weekend and you still keep amazing
me with your wonderful food! In fact I was in there twice, once after a
long bike ride with my girlfriend to split a sandwich and have a
molasses cookie each, and again on my way home to the Twin Cities.
Everything you and your staff make is great. The cinnamon roll I had was
the best ever, flaky dough and not too sweet butter cream topping, loved
it! I tell everyone I know whose heading to Bayfield to go through
Washburn and stop. In addition your staff is really a great crew. I'll
always remember stopping in last winter before your expansion to the
steamy warmth of your wonderful bakery. Keep up the good work and I wish
you great success in the future.—Brian McCarthy
Another Rave Review
OnMilwaukee,
the city’s popular daily on-line magazine raved about Café Coco in a
June 28
travel article, “Seven
Wonders of Wisconsin: Bayfield and the Apostle Islands.” Publisher, Andy
Tarnoff, wrote:
“There
[Washburn], we ate at Café
Coco, a place more known for its breakfasts and desserts, but one
equally delicious for its soups and salads. The star of the meal,
though, were indeed the desserts, particularly the carrot cake [pictured
with Noreen] and an amazing Key lime pie. Coco is a must-stop when in
the area, and locals all across the peninsula rave about it.”
Be sure to read the article about the Bayfield and the Apostle Islands
in our delightful corner of Wisconsin, OnMilwaukee,
Seven Wonders story.
Café Coco Update GG
The bigger dining room seats 40. It is right next to Coco's current location on Bayfield Street. The two buildings are connected.
The expanded bakery and café features great sandwiches such as a Lake Trout Reuben, a vegan gyro, blue cheese & beef, as well as those famous Coco deli sandwiches.
Noreen and the Coco staff believe that food made fresh from real ingredients is best. Now there is more Coco to love. The expanded cafe serves cooked-to-order breakfast and lunch seven days a week 362 days a year. Check out the menu. Enjoy a leisurely meal, or grab a sandwich, home made soup or salad to go. Café Coco's bakery still makes wholesome bread and mouthwatering pastries and desserts fresh daily. It’s all there, but there is more of it, and all of it is delicious.
On Alaska Radio
Noreen Ovadia Wills, Coco’s proprietor and pâtissier extraordinaire, was interviewed on Barrow, Alaska, radio on Thurs., Sep. 29. Noreen was interviewed by Bob Thomas and Earl Finkler about the Coco menu, its superb food and Noreen’s efficient management style. Earl and his wife, Chris, stopped for lunch at Coco Café on their way from Madeline Island to their home in Medford, WI. In addition to the food, Earl was impressed by “the way a customer goes thru the line — quickly it seems — and how the staff help all the way.”
Barrow is the northernmost community in the United States. It is
located on the Chukchi Sea coast, 320 miles north of the Arctic
Circle. The Barrow community is traditionally known as
Ukpeagvik, “place where snowy owls are hunted.” KBRW serves
listeners in 88,000 sq. miles of Arctic Alaska and thousands
more online.
Local whole wheat:
You can taste the difference
You’ve probably noticed the wholesome, nutty flavor of our
bakery items containing whole wheat. That’s because the wheat is grown
and milled just a few miles from our bakery in Washburn. We use fresh,
local ingredients whenever possible. Of course, Bayfield County is
famous for its apple orchards and berry farms. But it is also home of
lots of small farms producing delicious honey, maple syrup, and
garden-fresh produce.