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June 28, 2023
GREEN BAY – Coming from a family where the restaurant business is in their blood, Edgar Martinez said it was a no-brainer to jump on the opportunity to open a new restaurant in Green Bay.
“I always grew up around it,” he said. “I was a server starting out at my first job.”
When the location at 2581 Packerland Dr. on Green Bay’s southwest side became available, Martinez said he and his family decided it would be a great space to open an offshoot of his sister’s restaurant in Cudahy – a suburb of Milwaukee – called La Crema.
“Because of how well (La Crema) was doing, we decided to look elsewhere to expand,” he said. “We found this great location in Green Bay, so we decided to pull the trigger on it and open up another place here.”
Enter Café Con Crema, which opened last month.
Martinez is the manager of the new restaurant and said he made the move from Milwaukee to Green Bay for the opportunity.
Brunch and beyond
While Café Con Crema offers a variety of brunch options, such as pancakes and omelets, Martinez said the restaurant wanted to do things a bit differently than other breakfast spots.
“We wanted to offer a few different things,” he said. “That’s why we have stuff like the veggie burger, our fresh corner where we have our fresh-squeezed juices and then our espresso machine.”
Martinez said he thinks these pieces help Café Con Crema fill a niche.
“We felt like there weren’t too many of those places here, so we felt that was a void we could fill,” he said.
Name and place
When deciding on a name, Martinez said he and his family wanted to have a different name from La Crema in Milwaukee, but still have a tie-in.
“We didn’t necessarily want to stick with the same sort of crema theme, it’s just that’s the best one we were able to come up with,” he said. “We had a lot of different ideas, but we felt like (Café Con Crema) was probably the best one.”
Martinez said it took about half a year to get the place up and running – from concept to opening.
And since opening, he said the location has proven to be a great fit.
“There’s a lot of traveling with the (Austin Straubel International) Airport right here, and we’re near a highway, too,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of travelers. (And then) during a (Green Bay) Packers’ game, especially out-of-town visitors (will likely stop), so that’s a great traffic spot.”
Martinez said the building itself, which has been home to a variety of businesses in the past, was in good shape, which made transforming it into Café Con Crema that much easier.
“The building was in pretty good condition – we thought it was a great building – which was another big incentive (to open the restaurant here),” he said.
Business at first glance
Martinez said as expected business was slow for the first few days, but things have picked up since then.
“We always avoid advertising early because we know it takes a while to set up everything in the kitchen, up front for the servers and everything,” he said. “So, those first three days are always a little slow. But then word starts spreading and from there, it picks up. The last couple of days have been super busy.”
And, Martinez said, he expects it to stay that way.
“We’re expecting it to keep going like that, especially because we want to maintain a high quality of food and service,” he said. “So, we want to strive for even more success.”
Café Con Crema is open daily from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m.
For more information on the restaurant, including the menu, visit concremacafe.com.
