Come for the ice cream, stay for the coffee in Coleman

COLEMAN – One woman’s success is leading to others at the Chillee Cow Creamery.

Owner Tiffany Mursau purchased the creamery in the spring after its previous owner put the shop up for sale, largely to keep the creamy, homemade ice cream churning in Coleman. To retain regular customers, Mursau asked Johanna Maedke to continue making the ice cream the shop is known for.

Then she tapped another local business owner, Dawn Efta, to supply gourmet coffee. Efta recommended her daughter-in-law Mary Efta as a manager, and Mursau took the suggestion. Now Mary Efta is broadening the menu to hot and cold beverages, breakfast items and lunchtime wraps.

The four hard-working women, along with part-timers, are determined to make the Chillee Cow Creamery a success all year long.

“We are trying to grow the business for the community’s needs and wants,” Mursau said. She’s had the support of the community as co-owner with her husband Chad Mursau of Mursau’s Piggly Wiggly.

“We kind of tease each other – the store is his baby and the shop is my baby,” Mursau said, noting she often is running back and forth between the grocery store at 216 Business 141 North and Chillee Cow Creamery at 550 Business 141, where the Corner Scoop Creamery used to be.

“I think it’s vital for local businesses to support local businesses,” said Dawn Efta, owner with her husband Rod of The Preacher and his Wife Roastery at 2091 Church St. in Porterfield.

With a new Wisconsin Public Service building expected to open behind the drive-thru shop on MacArthur Dr., Chillee Cow Creamery seems to be situated in an ideal spot for growth, Mursau said. “It could be up to 400 people going through that building in a week,” she said.

A Wisconsin Public Service spokesman said 50 employees from Wausaukee and Menominee, Mich. are being transferred to the new Coleman Service Center, which is expected to open in November.

For now, Mursau said, the shop manager and 12 part-timers have plenty to do preparing food, ice cream and beverages to order and gradually expanding the menu. It offers 14-18 premium ice cream flavors, including favorite Muddy Cow.

The Mursaus closed on the purchase in April and opened the Chillee Cow Creamery in May, serving ice cream. “The ice cream was the draw,” Dawn Efta said.

By June 10, the shop with the dairy cow sign on Business 151 had announced new hours, a whole spread of gourmet coffee, lattes and breakfast sandwiches, and plans for new ice cream flavors.

“We’re creating this business as we go. We’re trying to create new things to bring in new people,” Mursau said. The latest addition to Chillee’s menu is wraps at lunchtime.

“Ice cream is still the bulk of our sales at this point, but people are very excited about the coffee and food as well,” said Manager Mary Efta. “I enjoy the creative side of it. I love my customers. It’s a small town, so we get a lot of regulars. I’ve gotten to know them and their regular orders.”

Favorite coffee drinks include a salted dark chocolate mocha and Milkmaid, a chocolate coffee drink and blended cold brew coffees. Seasonal offerings include a pumpkin spice latte and a maple syrup latte.

The shop also offers hibiscus tea blends, homemade lemonade, sparkling lemonade and Baumeister sodas from Kewaunee.

The store’s hours of 6 a.m.-8 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturdays and noon-8 p.m. Sundays require 12 part-time workers, but Mursau didn’t have any trouble hiring them. “We had a lot of people that were super excited about working there. I didn’t even get an ad out there, and applications were coming in. They knew us from owning the store,” she said.

The shop’s small footprint determines its limits to an extent. Mursau doesn’t envision tables inside the tiny store, but an outdoor pavilion with tables and chairs is a possibility. Without a stove top, deep fryer or grill, it is offering breakfast sandwiches made in a convection oven for about $5, wraps for about $8, chips and beverages.

Its breakfast sandwiches are on the menu all day, such as ham, egg and cheese with garlic aioli on ciabatta and sausage, egg and cheese on a croissant. It offers a chicken bacon ranch wrap, club wrap, turkey or ham wrap and a spinach garlic wrap at lunchtime. At $3.50 for a single scoop, ice cream is still the biggest seller, Mary Efta said.

A small outdoor seating area gives ice-cream lovers a place to sit and enjoy a scoop or two, a cup of coffee and a bite to eat. “We actually did very well when we first opened. We had a lot of community support,” Mursau said. “It made us feel very good that we decided to do this.”

What ice cream is to the Mursaus, coffee is to the Eftas of Porterfield, who are supplying the coffee for Chillee Cow Creamery. “I bought my husband a tiny little coffee roaster years ago,” Dawn Efta said. What started as a hobby grew into a business.

Efta is the wife of Rod, the preacher, or pastor, at Grover Community Church in Peshtigo. When people tried the couple’s freshly roasted coffee, they said, “I love your coffee. Can I buy some?” Dawn Efta said.

The couple launched the business after Rod was diagnosed with cancer, she said, to generate a second income. Now they have a licensed roastery, where they start with specialty grade coffee and roast it in small batches for about 18 minutes a batch. “We roast it and ship it out pretty quick after it’s done, so people get the freshest coffee possible,” she said. It takes about 18 minutes to roast a batch. “When we do a flavored batch, it’s a custom oil blend made for us on the East Coast,” she said. The couple sells the coffee wholesale to boutique stores and coffee shops and online to the public. It also brings a traveling coffee shop on wheels to the Sturgeon Bay Farmer’s Market on Saturday in the summer.

When the Mursaus bought the creamery, The Preacher and His Wife’s fans suggested they use the local brew. “It was word of mouth,” Efta said. “I did not know Tiffany and Chad before then.”

As soon as the two joined forces, Efta had an idea. Her soon-to-be daughter-in-law Mary had barista experience. Mary started as a consultant, then moved to Coleman to manage the new shop in June. Freshly brewed coffee, lattes and cold brew quickly became a reality at Chillee Cow Creamery. In August, Mary married one of Eftas sons, becoming Mary Efta.

By expanding the menu to caffeinated beverages, the coffee brand also is growing thanks to the Mursaus. The Piggly Wiggly has added The Preacher and His Wife packaged coffee to its store shelves.

“With owning the store, we are very much people that want to give back to the community,” Mursau said. “The community provides for us, and we give back to the community.”