Expanding to meet the EV needs of the Fox Valley
‘Change moves at the speed of trust’
January 26, 2026
NORTHEAST WISCONSIN – As the availability of Sara’s Artisan Gelato increases, Jonathan Santaga – who co-owns the company with its founder/his sister, Sara Kwaterski – said the focus on quality has followed suit.
The Business News first reported on Sara’s Artisan Gelato on Feb. 9, 2023, and followed up in an Oct. 7, 2024, issue regarding the company’s partnership with the Green Bay Packers.
A new location and move away from artificial dyes has the paper checking in again.
Continued growth
With a flagship store at 933 Anderson Drive in Ashwaubenon, a seasonal store at 4192 Main St. in Fish Creek, an expanded manufacturing facility in Suamico, wholesale availability throughout Wisconsin and at least another year as an official partner of the Packers, Santaga said the company has continued to responsibly grow.
With the time right for adding another location, he said “a really quick opportunity” arose in De Pere.
Santaga said it was the shop’s director of sales marketing/operations manager, Nate Ihlenfeldt, who happened across the newly built space at 3131 Monroe Road.
When a deal was agreed upon to open a new gelato shop in Suite 130, Santaga said it didn’t hurt that the property manager told him, “Oh, my kids love your store.”
“We opened the location over in De Pere at the beginning of last summer,” he said, “and it has been going great.”
The store, Santaga said, provides another option for enjoying the gelato in the most delicious way possible – “getting it scooped out of the case.”
“It’s great out of a pint, but the traditional, Italian way of getting it at the right temperature, with the homemade waffle cones [is what we highly recommend],” he said.
More of ‘the good stuff’
Santaga said the key balance for the business has been to achieve growth without sacrificing what’s made Sara’s Artisan Gelato popular – its high quality.
He said Kwaterski’s passion for the products recently led her to address their ingredients at a new level of intricacy.
For 2026, Santaga said Sara’s Artisan Gelato will fully transition away from artificial dyes and move to naturally derived, plant-based food colors instead – an announcement made on the company’s social media accounts earlier this year.
“Sara, being a mother, was thinking, ‘I don’t feed my kids these [ingredients], so I wouldn’t feel right giving these to other people and their kids,’” he said. “She felt very strongly that we wanted to move away from that.”
According to the announcement, from the start, Sara’s Artisan Gelato has only ever sparingly used dye in its products, primarily for “flavor recognition.”
The results of changing that, Santaga said, will be healthier, with the only discernable change being a lower intensity of color for some flavors.
“The Unicorn Cake Batter won’t be as bright blue anymore,” he said as an example. “It’ll be a little bit lighter.”
Santaga said the products’ flavor will not be affected whatsoever.
“Product quality has always been the No. 1 issue for Sara and me, making sure it’s as good as it can be,” he said. “[The ingredient upgrades are] worth every second of time and effort to make that happen.”
Santaga said with Kwaterski removing gluten from her diet, she has also begun labeling gluten-free products as such, while also seeking ways to adjust certain recipes to become gluten-free – similarly, without any impact on flavor or texture.
“More people are having allergies and intolerances now, so we want to make sure everybody can still have the good stuff,” he said.
Santaga said the newly tweaked recipes and product labels will be rolled out “within the next couple months.”
He also said to follow Sara’s on social media for upcoming new products and availability.
