Poppy Bakery will open to the public on Saturday, June 14, beginning at 9 a.m. But – before you visit – you owe it to yourself to read a bit about the incredibly mindful, passionate baker behind the East Side operation, which specializes in soul-filling, seasonally driven, locally sourced baked goods.
“I don’t have that story about growing up cooking with my mom or making jam with my grandmother,” says Pastry Chef Amy Gorski as she talks to me about the events that led to the opening of Poppy Bakery at 2021 E. Ivanhoe Pl.
We’re sitting inside the homey, welcoming bakery with its peachy yellow walls and floor-to-ceiling windows that look out on the newly painted pedestrian mall that will welcome locals to gather and dine out of doors within the next few weeks.
Gorski tells me that the space is comprised of a variety of things, both old and new. The cream colored hutch that holds a collection of baking books and beautiful little knick-knacks was purchased second-hand from Facebook Marketplace.
The same is true of the vintage poppy print, which she couldn’t resist buying to hang on the wall where it would tie the name of the shop to its environs.
The deep brown stained shelving at the back of the shop that Gorski says serves as “sneaky storage” for front of house necessities like gloves, napkins and carry-out boxes, she bought from IKEA, stained by hand and painstakingly put it together herself, adding baskets, bins and functional curtains to hide the items being stored.
You can see the bakery equipment through the windows that once separated the cats from the cafe at Sip & Purr Cat Cafe. At this moment, Paige Hanusa is pulling the parchment from a pan of blueberry coriander scone dough that needs to be sliced and baked.
“A childhood friend of mine made the cases,” she says as she points to the bakery cases atop the warm rusty red service counter.
In just a few days, the case will be filled with Americana-style breakfast pastries including brioche buns filled with bacon, parsley, chives and five cheeses; cinnamon rolls, sesame banana bread and sweet treats like brown butter miso cookies and brownies.
“There are lots of things I want to do,” Gorski says, telling me about the opening. “To start, there will be breakfast bites and Valentine coffee in the morning and sweet treats in the afternoon. Eventually we’ll have specials like pies. And down the road we’ll add croissants and a full coffee program.
“But, I want everyone to have the best possible experience. So, we’re going to take things one step at a time. I want to see what people like, how much traffic we have. And I want my staff properly trained as baristas before we expand the coffee program…”
From preschool to pastry maven
Gorski was born and raised on the outskirts of Chicago. But she moved to Milwaukee to attend the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her goal was to earn her education degree and become a preschool teacher.
“I love children, but as I progressed through my program, I realized that I didn’t necessarily want to teach them,” she says, “So, I switched my major over to Communications.”
She also loved to bake. “I was vegan at the time and I’d bake out of my dorm room. It was my junior year when Cupcake Wars was broadcast on the Food Network and I remember being excited about that.”
And while there wasn’t a “lightbulb moment” that sparked her interest in attending culinary school, she says that she was really moved by a date she went on at Roots before she moved back to Chicago after she graduated.
“It was rustic and beautiful,” she says, noting that it prompted her to reach out to Daniel Jacobs to see if she could work with him. Due to numerous circumstances, the job didn’t materialize, but she did spend time staging with him.
Gorski returned to Chicago and earned her Associate's degree in pastry from Kendall College. From there, she pursued work at Farmhouse (closed in 2025), The Publican and Boka in Chicago before switching gears and deciding she’d rather work in a bakery environment.
“When Molly Svec opened her bakery, Spilt Milk Pastry, I thought: that’s what I want to do,” says Gorski. “So, I pursued a job with them. So many chefs have been influential for my career, but no one more than Molly and her sister Meg Svec… After that, during the pandemic, I moved to Cincinnati to work at Brown Bear Bakery.”
There, she met the Gosnell family and worked for them as a nanny. Their little girl’s name was Rosalie.
“Rosalie was adorable. I loved her and I’d talk about her all the time,” recalls Gorski. “Eventually, my friend Cassidy commented that she envisioned me having a daughter and naming her Poppy. After that, the name stuck in my head. I couldn’t shake it. It reminded me of Rosalie. Ultimately, it became the name I knew I wanted for my bakery.”
The birth of Poppy Bakery
“I always loved Milwaukee more than Chicago,” Gorski remarks. “I liked the pace. I also had family here, so it was easy to move back.”
She launched Poppy Bakery as a pop-up in 2023, selling once a month at the Brookfield Farmers Market and returning to sell weekly in 2024.
“That was a tough year. My sister was working in healthcare and I was watching my niece, Carsyn, while she was at work. In addition to selling at markets, I sold bread to EsterEv. The business was gaining in popularity. I had so many regulars, and I wanted to give them more. But I couldn’t keep going at the pace I was keeping. I knew I needed to either get a full-time job or open my own bakery.”
So she called on her friend, George Gaspar, who helped her look for spaces.
“Ultimately, we only looked at one,” Gorski says. “I walked into the former Sip & Purr Cafe and the first person I saw was Gina [Gruenwald] from Roots and Wolf Peach. And it was like things had come full circle. It was like a little Godwink saying that’s where I belonged.”
When Gorski talks about her bakery, it’s clear that she maintains a commitment to locally grown ingredients. Her flour comes from Meadowlark Organics. She buys her fruit from local and regional farmers with whom she has relationships. And she values the unmatchable flavor that comes with seasonal bakery.
“I want people to taste the really amazing strawberries that have a season that’s literally a whisper long,” she says. “They’re here and then they’re gone. I want them to taste what things taste like when they’re made with fresh, locally grown flour. And I want people to taste the amazing blueberries that were grown by people I know.”
She’s also clear that she isn’t the type of bakery where you can order a wedding cake.
“We won’t carry macarons,” she says, “But we’ll carry pastries that have unique-but approachable flavor combinations. Blueberry coriander scones, coffee cake made with locally grown spelt flour. Biscuits with housemade jam and honey butter.
“I have a very young team, so I’m excited to allow them to flex their muscles in terms of exercising their imaginations and creating unique flavor combinations,” she says. “I want this to be a collaborative place where we all work together and support one another.”
Poppy Bakery will open to the public on Saturday, June 14 from 9 to 3 p.m. and Sunday, June 15 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Gorski says that it's important to her that they ease into the opening, ensuring that folks get the best possible bakery and service. So, she plans to gradually add a day at a time to the schedule, with the hope that by the end of June they will be open Thursday through Sunday.
As a passionate champion of the local dining scene, Lori has reimagined the restaurant critic's role into that of a trusted dining concierge, guiding food lovers to delightful culinary discoveries and memorable experiences.
Lori is an avid cook whose accrual of condiments and spices is rivaled only by her cookbook collection. Her passion for the culinary industry was birthed while balancing A&W root beer mugs as a teenage carhop, fed by insatiable curiosity and fueled by the people whose stories entwine with every dish. Lori is the author of two books: the "Wisconsin Field to Fork" cookbook and "Milwaukee Food". Her work has garnered journalism awards from entities including the Milwaukee Press Club. In 2024, Lori was honored with a "Top 20 Women in Hospitality to Watch" award by the Wisconsin Restaurant Association.
When she’s not eating, photographing food, writing or planning for TV and radio spots, you’ll find Lori seeking out adventures with her husband Paul, traveling, cooking, reading, learning, snuggling with her cats and looking for ways to make a difference.
.jpeg)
