Karen and George Herrera

Karen & George Herrera are the owners of Sugar & Flour Bakery Café and the proud parents of two young ladies, Emily and Lauren, ages almost 16 and 13. George has an associate degree in food science and was the executive chef at the Hyatt Whitney Minneapolis, the Hyatt Regency Buffalo and then the Hyatt in Milwaukee prior to transitioning to Sugar & Flour full-time. Karen has an associate degree in culinary arts and started as the baker at the Hyatt in Minneapolis, which is where she and George met. Karen later worked at an independent bakery in Buffalo. After moving to Wisconsin, Karen was a stay-at-home mom until the girls started school. At that time, she started baking and shipping cookies out of her house.

They opened Sugar & Flour Bakery located at 5721 Broad St, Greendale, in 2001. They expanded and opened the café in 2017. If you read through previous interviews on this website, you will find that many people list Sugar & Flour Bakery Café as their favorite restaurant in Greendale! They offer breakfast, lunch and specialty coffees plus cookies and breads.

Thank you, George and Karen, for serving us great food and for your love of Greendale!

 

Q: What inspired you or led you to your current career?

Karen: We are both in the restaurant business by trade. I started being a stay at home Mom when the kids were born. When they started school, I needed to get back into the workforce so I started baking out of my house. One day, I was driving down Broad St and discovered that this location that used to be a pizza place was now available for lease. The next day, we went to look at it and George said, “Let’s do it!”. That was in 2011. It snowballed from there. We had just the bakery for several years and then one day I said to George, “Do you want to add a café?” The café opened in 2017.

 

Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Greendale, and what do you love there?

Karen & George: Ricardo’s. We love the wings, pizza and eggplant fries.

 

Q: How long have you lived or worked in Greendale?

Karen & George: We moved to Wisconsin from Buffalo in 2005. What brought us here was when the Hyatt offered George a lateral transfer as executive chef from Buffalo to Milwaukee. This gave us the opportunity to live closer to family. We opened Sugar & Flour in Greendale in 2011.

 

Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in Greendale?

Karen & George: We’ve met a lot of interesting people. One of our favorites is a person named Teresa. She’s a nurse and works night shift. She comes in the morning and her dogs are in the hallway watching her through the window. Michelle and Sean are also really interesting. They will talk to anybody and know a lot of fun factoids. Everyone is special that comes in!

 

Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be? And why?

George: I would do a bike packing trip to Northern Wisconsin and see the waterfalls.

Karen: My dream trip is to go to Paris. I’ve never been there and I think it would be a nice place to visit.

 

Q: What is your favorite movie OR what is the first movie you remember seeing in a theater?

George: My favorite movie is Star Wars and the first movie I remember seeing in a theater was Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. I’m a big Kiss fan!

Karen: I like Harry Potter movies but the first movie I remember ever seeing is The Neverending Story.

 

Q: What advice would you give a crowd of people?

George: Enjoy the moment and enjoy everyone around you.

Karen: Don’t push and be nice.

 

Q: What is something on your bucket list?

George: To have more than one location of Sugar & Flour.

Karen: I’d like to take our girls to Hawaii or some other big trip.

 

Q: What is your favorite music/ 3 bands you would like to see (dead or alive)?

George: Foo Fighters and the Beatles. Led Zeppelin or ACDC for the 3rd one.

Karen: Foo Fighters. We went last year for my birthday and it was fantastic. The original Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

 

Q: What current / former local business makes you the most nostalgic about Greendale?

George: Ferch’s or Ricardo’s.

Karen: I always enjoyed Lotions and Potions. They had a bathtub in the middle of the store. It was neat.

 

Q: Choosing anyone alive and a non-relative with whom would you love to have lunch? Why and where would you have lunch?

George: Chef Ramsay. He is really creative. We would have lunch at Ricardo’s or Joey Gerard’s for dinner.

Karen: I’d love to have lunch with Ina Garten, she is the author of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks and the host of Barefoot Contessa on Food Network. We would have lunch here and sit outside or near the window and watch people drive by.

 

Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about Greendale?

George & Karen: The Gazebo. There’s so much going on during the weekends there. It’s really pretty in the winter, too. Also the Dickens of a Village and the Tree Lighting brings the whole community together.

 

Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?

George: Having a second location for Sugar & Flour and, of course, to be with Karen still.

Karen: Our kids will be in college or at the end of high school, so we will likely have sold our house by then and moved into Greendale. Also, to have a second location for Sugar & Flour with George.

 

Q: (Even for friends or family), what is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?

Karen: We are kind of open books, but one thing that people might not know about me is that I don’t like coffee.

George: I cooked for several dignitaries and past presidents as a chef in the hotel industry.

 

Q: What 3 words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?

George & Karen: Sleep, Comfort, Relax, Togetherness, Simple and Crazy (We have teenage daughters!)

 

Q: If you were cast into a major motion picture and had your choice of anyone to be your co-star, who would you choose?

George: Robert Downey Jr. or Harrison Ford

Karen: Pierce Brosnan or Jennifer Aniston

 

Q: If you had a full-time staff member that was fully paid for, who would you choose? Chef, Housekeeper, Driver, Coach, Physical Fitness Trainer or Nanny?

George: Cycling coach / nutritionist because the more you age, you need to have a balanced diet.

Karen: A housekeeper / personal trainer.

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