Chefs Travis Martinez and Whitney Smedema have spent their careers working as pastry chefs. Now they’re working to create a bakery and commercial kitchen where other small-scale bakers, juice makers and sweets-adjacent entrepreneurs can take their businesses to the next level.
If all goes well, Martinez says they hope for their storefront, located in the former Daniel’s Catering at 2201 S. 84th St. in West Allis, to be up and running by the end of June.
What’s Sugar Studio?
For 20+ years, Martinez has worked as a pastry chef. His career has included local posts at The Pfister Hotel and Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, as well as posts with Norwegian Cruise Lines in Hawaii and Caesar’s Palace and JinJu Chocolates in Las Vegas. He's also competed on The Food Network's "Halloween Wars."
In 2018, he launched Sugar Studio, a business he initially used to facilitate consulting with businesses like Sabor Tropical. But he took the business to another level in 2020 when the pandemic hit and he was laid off from his full-time pastry position, establishing a reputation for simple, delicious pastries and cookies made with the highest quality ingredients.
Eventually, he returned to his full-time work. But he kept Sugar Studio going as a side project, more recently partnering with Smedema, an accomplished pastry chef he’d worked with at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino.
Smedema, a WCTC culinary graduate whose passion for pastry led her to work at The American Club in Kohler, Simma’s Bakery and Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, where she was employed for 15 years.
“In recent years, she’s become the main pastry chef at Sugar Studio,” says Martinez. “She’s extremely talented and she has really taken the creative aspect of the business to a new level, putting a nice twist on the things we make and growing our offerings to include loft-style cookies and cakes, including carrot and chocolate cake.”
In 2023, they began hunting for a space where they could build out their own commercial kitchen.
“Initially, we were looking for something that would assist us in growing Sugar Studio,” says Martinez. “But we struggled to find places that we could rent that worked for us and that we could afford.”
But when they came upon the 4500 square-foot kitchen space in West Allis, they began rethinking their initial plan.
“I’ve always been the type of person who loves to teach and grow with others,” he says. “And the more we talked, the more we began thinking about creating a shared space.”
As they began working on the space, they quickly found that there was more to be done than they thought (including completely replacing the existing plumbing). So, they went on the hunt for grants and loan programs that might be available to assist their progress. Carson Coffield, an economic development specialist employed by the West Allis Economic Development Office, pointed them toward assistance in the form of loans that was available to assist the build-outs of shared kitchen spaces.
The loans, along with funding from a Kickstarter campaign, turned the tables for the project.
“The whole City of West Allis has been incredible,” Martinez says. “And Carson has been a key player in helping us to get the funding that we’ve secured.”
What’s coming?
The initial build-out for Sugar Studio & Company is nearly complete. In as little as a month, the neighborhood is likely to be able to enjoy the benefits of the new business, thanks to its two-pronged business model, which includes both a shared kitchen and storefront.
The kitchen space features new plumbing and electric along with equipment including ovens, mixers, coolers, freezers and bottling, labeling and packaging machines. Basement storage is also available to all entrepreneurs who rent the space, as well as a space on our website to advertise their business.
Sugar Studio & Company will also have an outward-facing storefront where the participating entrepreneurs can sell their handmade products to the public.
“We’re looking forward to selling a combination of good bakery items, higher patisserie-style items and hopefully, eventually, some baked breads. We’ll also be carrying products from businesses that have helped us out along the way including Bunny’s Bite, Artisan Meats and teas from Alice’s Garden.
“Our vision is to provide that extra stepping stone for small businesses that are going from a home-based operation to a medium-sized business. We want our website to showcase their brand and we want them to be able to sell their products themselves and in our storefront.”
What’s left to do?
Currently, Martinez says they have three bakers who will be moving into the shared kitchen space; but he anticipates the space could accommodate up to 20 different businesses if they’re properly scheduled.
“We’ll have equipment like mixers, dough sheeters and chocolate tempering machines that most people have to save up for years to afford. The goal will be that we can teach them how to use this type of equipment so that, as they grow, they will have the knowledge that they need to avoid huge learning curves.”
Martinez says he also hoped to bring in deck ovens so that they could support bread bakers in the space, but – while they have the space – they don’t have the funds to purchase them.
“We had an angel investor who pushed us over the top for our Kickstarter,” he says. “But we hope we can raise just a bit more money over the next month or two so that we can purchase things like deck ovens. Anyone who chooses to donate at this point is really contributing to our mission, which is to boost small businesses so that they can grow and succeed.”
Interested in supporting Sugar Studio & Company? Donate here! (A donation of just $150 gets you a Dessert Club Membership!)
Looking for a space to rent for your small baking, confectionery or sweets-adjacent business? Email sugarstudio18@gmail.com for additional information.
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.
