A job as a school secretary in her hometown of Gillett wasn’t exactly Michelle Hansen’s cup of tea.
She was looking for something more fulfilling than sitting at a desk all day and eventually found it at a small coffee shop that she would visit in Oconto Falls.
Hansen purchased that shop, Corki’s Cup of Joy, in 2022 and renamed it the Milk and Honey Café. After dealing with the issues of purchasing and starting her own business, she now oversees a busy place at 323 Highland Drive.
“I’ve had about four different jobs throughout my life,” Hansen said. “I liked them all, but it was just not what I wanted to do. I always wanted to work for myself. When I saw this was for sale, I thought, ‘Why not? I’m not getting any younger.’
“It was a place that I would frequent often. When I heard it was for sale, I was kind of like, ‘I love that place, I want to do that.’ I saw that the business was for sale a couple of times and thought, ‘No, I don’t think I should do that.’”
Being a first-time business owner in a small town can be intimidating, according to Hansen.
“When I bought it, it was drive-thru only,” she said. “We kept it that way for a month or so just to kind of get our feet wet and get a grasp on everything. Those customers stayed loyal and they continued to come back.”
Hansen doesn’t have a background in business management. Prior to taking ownership, she was a secretary at Gillett Elementary School and then worked for an eye doctor in the community.
“I liked my job at the school, but I was behind a desk all day and I knew that that wasn’t for me for the rest of my life,” she said. “I was never a morning person, so I had to break the cycle, but I’m good now. I take more pride in my work just because I know (the business) is mine and I want to take care of it and continue to grow hopefully into something maybe a little bigger.”
She recalled her first day of business in February 2022.
“It was really slow and I thought, ‘Oh no,’” she said. “Things gradually picked up, but later on, I learned that February is kind of a slow time in general for restaurants. I finally have a pretty good grasp of it in year three.”
Milk and Honey is open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and is also open on Saturday mornings in the fall and winter. The menu includes coffee, espressos, smoothies, tea, wraps, paninis, soups and salads.
“We’re pretty unique in the way that we offer different monthly specials,” Hansen said. “We have a lot of fun just making up new recipes and naming them.”
Milk and Honey also offers small bags of coffee, as well as locally made honey, maple and elderberry syrups, handmade soap and other items.
“The honey and syrup is made by Healthy Homestead out of Suring,” Hansen said. “We try to keep everything as local as we can and offer that to our customers. We also offer miniature bags of ground coffee that customers can take home. They can try it before they get a bigger bag.”
Hansen and her six part-time employees cater to a wide range of customers, including a group of older gentlemen who come in every morning.
“They sit at these two tables here and now that it’s nicer out, they’ll go out on the patio and sit out there,” she said. “Now that we started the lotus drinks, a lot of high school kids like those and they’ve been coming in. I would think the majority of our customers would probably be around 25 to 30 (years old). I would say most of our business is the drive-thru. They call in orders and take it back to work, but we do get a pretty good crowd in-house also. The kitchen will have a bunch of orders, but there will be only one table (of customers) out here.”
Hansen also maintains a Facebook page for the business that includes weekly specials and other details.
“I think this is a good location,” she said. “It provides something for people in town that don’t want to go all the way to the highway. If other businesses in town are looking for a quick lunch, it’s a nice option that we’re here for them. We enjoy being in town. I can’t imagine us going out by the highway.”
Hansen is happy to make recommendations for first-time customers.
“We hear from our customers all the time that they’re really happy that we’re here,” she said. “It’s a healthier option. Everything’s made fresh. It’s not your burger-and-fries kind of place.”
Milk and Honey Café caters to coffee lovers
