Confectionately Yours Cafe

My name is Adija Greer Smith, and I am the founder, operator and head baker of Confectionately Yours located inside of the Sherman Phoenix, right here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Confectionately Yours is a sweet shop specializing in old-fashioned, southern inspired sweets and every day treats. As a conduit for six generations of baking tradition and creative cooking, my mission is to ensure that those traditions last for many generations to come. Since family is the root of what motivates me to do this, at Confectionately Yours we embrace the family dynamic every single day. My team of skilled bakers, servers and baristas are my family. Neither long hours nor tall orders have ever stopped us from delivering our handmade goodness right on-time. We take pride in our craft, and love satisfying every guest.  For the ability to serve our guests with our very best, WE ARE BLESSED! 

They say “Cooking is a labor of love.” and we know that to be true. Everything we create is baked with love and loaded with the kind of nostalgia that will take you right back to your childhood. Our number one goal is to delight each guest by offering high-quality service and a tasty trip down memory lane! This is absolutely what we do. When you are in line at the counter of Confectionately Yours, you will see for yourself! Oftentimes, the wait can seem a little long but once one realizes the dedication to service and the quality of our delicious treats, time becomes completely irrelevant. Southern traditions dictate our hospitality as well, which is a reminder in this fast paced-society to slow down and enjoy the process. Think of “In a Mississippi minute” as opposed to a New York one. When it comes to pleasing your palate, if you have a more sophisticated one, you can taste the difference. Who wants the rush job anyway?!

Our guests have often shared that they feel right at home hand selecting treats for themselves & their loved ones, as if they were stopping by Grandma's kitchen to sneak a few freshly made cookies right off of the baking sheet! This is exactly what we hope for, every time you stop by. Speaking of grandmothers, I would be remiss if I didn't pay homage to the sweetest one inside and outside of the kitchen - my late grandmother Mildred.

Apples don’t fall too far from the tree, right? My “Grandma Mildred” came from a long line of phenomenal women who were self-taught culinary artists. While my roots originate in Africa, five generations back landed my family in Kosciusko, Mississippi. The Nash family owned and worked hundreds of acres of farmland, and children were taught at an early age a strong work ethic and how to become entrepreneurs.  My great-grandparents Flowers and Pauline Nash relocated to Milwaukee in the 1940’s, and during the 60's opened up “Nash Soul Food” restaurant on the corner of 6th & Wright, followed by “Nash Grocery Store” on 16th & Locust. So as you can see sharing the sweetest gifts instilled in me started many moons before me. I was destined to be an entrepreneur. 

At Nash Grocery Store, my grandma practiced many skills that were first learned right at home when she was just a child. She learned the art of baking, canning, gardening and creating delicious food from many or just a few ingredients. Quality cooking is a female tradition in my family, the kitchen was the best place for women like Gram to transfer all of her loving and creative energy right into each and every dish she touched. The kitchen was a joyful place and she was the happiest when she was hosting and gracing the plates and palates of her most distinguished guests. Giving brought Gram so much joy and her hands were the greatest expression of many family recipes passed down the pipeline of the most amazing cooks.

Many of the products my grandparents offered at the store or restaurant were from recipes passed through the family tree. Mama Loni’s handmade butter rolls, jelly cakes, pear and tomato preserves, just to name a few! When my Gram began to train my sister and I it was critical that she taught us all about where it all started so that we could carry the torch when it was our time. My Gram absolutely loved spending time hosting dinner parties to share all her delightful food and baked goods and she actively hosted until her health began to fail, that’s when I knew it was time for me to really soak up some family knowledge.

Let me not get too far ahead of myself, she had plenty of years in the kitchen before she was forced to sit down and allow her children and grandchildren to do the baking for her, and trust me it was an honor to receive her stamp of approval. LOVE has always been the main ingredient in all of the recipes that have been passed down the Nash family line. Grandma loved us & taught us to love each other deeply through baking & cooking! That special ingredient still holds true today. LOVE.

Time and time again, I watched my grandma work in the kitchen creating something tasty

 with just two or three simple ingredients, and get creative by turning her new creations into so many other things! Gram  learned many of the generations of recipes from her mother and grandmother and would often pair the jams & jellies on breads, cakes, tarts, biscuits & pastries. A true artist, creative beyond words, another amazing trait I inherited from her. Gram taught me that the smallest things can have the greatest impact. Learning these skills in my youth truly prepared me as I operate in business today. 

I was raised to believe that passion always comes before profit. When you love something, you will continue to do it no matter what! This is exactly what happened in Spring of 2020 when our world was faced with a pandemic that shut down everyone and everything for months. My heart broke hearing stories of the front-line heros in hospitals, fire houses & police stations who were working triple time to keep us safe. I pondered over what I could do to help until it finally occurred to me to go back to my roots of service and share LOVE through my hand rolled cookies. The Confectionately Yours Cookie Drive of 2020 served one purpose; to show LOVE to those humans protecting us from the unknown. With our doors closed for months on end, we had NOTHING. From nothing, we made something. Just as Grandma Mildred taught me to do. 

Listen, I share this all with you because Confectionately Yours has come back quickly from the depths of pandemic despair. Not only have we come back from it but we are THRIVING and at this point, we have grown larger than the space that our tiny kitchen and small little counter allows. We are ready to break through the barriers that limit us. Our potential is limitless and yet we are limited by these barriers. Our support system is ever-present and always growing yet still seems just outside of our reach. We have begun building our second location on Martin Luther King Drive which will allow for more food to be shared, coffee to be served, and a farther reach into the City of Milwaukee. On MLK, we have a slightly larger kitchen but if we're being honest, even that shared kitchen is not big enough for our future! We are still limited here, as we are sharing this new community kitchen with other restaurant owners who are working to build their food service businesses.

Confectionately Yours NEEDS A FULL SERVICE PRODUCTION KITCHEN that's ours alone to accommodate both the needs of our growing community of counter service guests as well as all of our corporate clients! The tradition of baking in my family has brought me to a place where the only way to go from here is up!

While I believe in the power of prayer, manifestation & hard work, I also believe in the power of community so we are reaching out to the community we serve for support in our rapid growth! In order to expand, we need so much more. For this reason, I have decided to be vulnerable and ask for help. This is not something that I am accustomed to but it is the best way to ensure the success of Confectionately Yours and to secure the legacy of my ancestors.

Please, strongly consider a contribution to my crowdfunding campaign. The money earned through this campaign will allow me to avoid the costly option of borrowing money from a bank. I would prefer to give back to my community of loyal patrons & corporate clientele in exchange for contributions rather than pay a decade worth of interest fees to the financial institutions in exchange for a start-up loan now. Take a moment to look at the generous & thoughtful offerings listed on this page and see what best suits your budget! Every dollar is appreciated! Every single one of you is appreciated! Help us grow, help me pass on this Legacy to Future Generations of Bakers, Baristas, and Entrepreneurs !

Thank you in advance for investing in the future greatness of this community as we continue to build a lasting footprint that people of Milwaukee, Wisconsin can be proud of.

Confectionately Yours,

Adija Greer Smith