It’s last call for doughnuts, fresh bread, sweet treats and Sunday hot ham and rolls at a popular Bay View bakery.
A year and a half after opening in the neighborhood, Gather Bakehouse, 1100 E. Oklahoma Ave., will close after service on April 12.
Owner Brittany Wohlfeil said the reason for closing is a leak in the boiler that is “beyond repair.”
“We rely on that boiler for our ovens and our proofer,” she said. “We can’t use it now – it’s not safe.”
Wohlfeil noticed the leak a few weeks ago but didn’t realize the extent of the issue until she received a couple of large repair quotes.
“It was a bigger issue than a small bakery that’s renting a space can take on right now,” she said. “It’s an expensive building improvement for a building that we don’t own.”
Wohlfeil said she tried to work out the issue with the building’s owner, but they could not come to an agreement.
“If I can’t safely bake bread and rolls, it’s really out of our hands,” she said.
Gather Bakehouse was really hitting its stride, Wohlfeil said. It had built a “special bond” with Unity Evangelical Lutheran Church, located across the street. It sold baguettes to Mother’s, the popular new restaurant run by James Beard Award semifinalist Vanessa Rose. It was focusing more on using local ingredients and transitioning to using all its own recipes, rather than the “hodgepodge” of originals and those from predecessors in the space, Canfora (which operated for 36 years before closing in 2017) and Lakeside Bakery (which closed in January 2024).
“Then, basically in an instant, it was over,” Wohlfeil said, noting that lack of community support was never an issue.
Gather Bakehouse opened its Bay View store in October 2024 as Batter & Mac, the second location of the business Wohlfeil owned with her sister, Kasey Gusho. They opened the first Batter & Mac location in Menomonee Falls in 2021. In August 2025, Gusho left the company and Wohlfeil rebranded the business as Gather Bakehouse. In October, its Menomonee Falls location closed.
In its remaining days, Gather Bakehouse will operate under regular business hours, selling as much of its inventory as possible.
Old favorites will be available while supplies last, and some “surprise new items,” including sweet bread loaves, may hit the shelves, to “try to move flour and sugar,” Wohlfeil said.
The bakery will serve its last Sunday hot ham and rolls on April 12.
Come in early to nab a favorite treat, and don’t forget that sourdough freezes well.
“Put a couple loaves in your freezer for when you’re feeling sad that we’re gone in a month and you need your sourdough fix,” Wohlfeil said.
Wohlfeil isn’t sure what the future of Gather Bakehouse may be, and though she works double duty as a nurse practitioner at Froedert Hospital and has two kids at home, she’s not ready to hang up her apron just yet.
“I certainly hope this isn’t forever – there was still so much that we wanted to do,” she said, acknowledging she’ll need time for rest and reassessment before rebounding. “I spent six years building this from my home kitchen. I can’t imagine not doing it at all, I just don’t know what it will look like in the future.”
Wohlfeil is encouraging anyone interested in hiring talented bakery staff to reach out.
Through April 12, Gather Bakehouse’s hours are 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday to Friday and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Gather Bakehouse to close in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood
Reporting by Rachel Bernhard, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
