Dandan pastry chef opening a bakery in the Third Ward

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jaceleen Latin-Kasper stands in front of her new business, Batches bakery, which is under construction at 401 E. Erie St.

Batches, a new bakery and cafe, will open in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward in early 2018.

The business at 401 E. Erie St. will feature classic American desserts by owner Jaceleen Latin-Kasper, the pastry chef at Dandan restaurant.

Batches will be in a corner retail space in the 132-apartment Domus building, which opened last summer.

The bakery-cafe will sell Anodyne coffee and espresso drinks, house-made ice creams, menu items such as salads, wraps and soups available to go, and savory baked breakfast foods, such as potato tot casserole and Saturday morning quiches.

The menu will include vegan and gluten-free items.

The shop, which will have a mural and color palette based on rainbow cake sprinkles, will have seats for about 15 to 20 customers who might want to "grab a coffee with friends, have a treat, hang out a little bit," Latin-Kasper said.

Since the location is steps from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, "the hope really is that MIAD students can use it as a place to study," she added.

The location also is across the street from Dandan and its sister restaurant, EsterEv, 360 E. Erie St., which are owned by chefs Dan Van Rite and Dan Jacobs and their business partner, Jeff Joerres.

Van Rite, Jacobs and Joerres all are partners in the bakery, as well, but Latin-Kasper is leading everything from the concept to the daily operations.

"This is Jaceleen's baby," Jacobs said.

"We always like to keep challenging people we have working for us. One of the best ways to keep the key people around is give them a new challenge," Jacobs added. "Jaceleen deserves this. She's really good. That we were in a position to do this is a win for everybody."

The bakery will give Latin-Kasper a chance to make something in addition to the fine-dining desserts she had been creating at Dandan and EsterEv.

"I've had a long interest in vintage American desserts," she said. "This is a good opportunity for me to explore that."

Latin-Kasper, who studied art history at the University of Minnesota before working in pastry, said she lately has been focused on classics from the South, "because their recipes are so full of butter and brown sugar." Customers at Batches are likely to see chocolate and citrus variations on chess pie, a kind of Southern custard pie, for example.

Pies and cakes will be sold by the slice and whole. Prices will be on par with other bakeries, the owner said, starting around $2 for cookies.

The bakery will make its own waffle cones and have five flavors of ice cream and sorbet, made in small batches at the shop, that will change occasionally.

A 6-foot refrigerated pastry case will hold three kinds of candy bars, cheesecake and vegan cheesecake, two or three kinds of pie and a couple of kinds of cakes. Another 6-foot space will display five kinds of cookies, vegan and gluten-free brownies, and several kinds of sweet breakfast breads sliced to order from long loaves — traditional cinnamon swirl coffee cake, gluten-free chocolate-banana and vegan lemon-blueberry.

The bakery will be open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays. Hours might be extended in the summer.

Batches will be one of only a couple of bakeries near downtown; the other is C. Adam's Bakery, in the Milwaukee Public Market in the Third Ward. A doughnut shop, Holey Moley, is on N. Milwaukee St., also in the Third Ward.

Latin-Kasper will continue to be Dandan's pastry chef, but her sous chef, Linda Thai, has taken on Latin-Kasper's role of pastry chef for EsterEv, a tasting menu restaurant that this year was awarded four stars from the Journal Sentinel. Thai also is collaborating on Batches.

Desserts for Dandan and EsterEv now will be made at the bakery, giving the pastry team more space for its work and giving the EsterEv crew more room to prepare that restaurant's savory dishes.