Wildfire Coffeehouse brews half a decade of success

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

December 2, 2024

KIMBERLY – Caleb Fidlin said he and his family (parents Gina and Steve, brother Noah and his then-girlfriend – now wife – Ireland) have learned a lot since opening Wildfire Coffeehouse in 2019.

Fidlin, 24, said he’s been managing the coffeehouse since he graduated high school – first opening in Kaukauna before moving to its current location in Kimberly (819 Schelfhout Lane, Suite 108).

A family affair

Fidlin said the idea for opening a coffeehouse came from his parents who were looking to diversify his father’s business portfolio.

The same day he and Ireland had a conversation about one day wanting to open a coffee shop, Fidlin said his parents approached them about starting the business together.

“We came home and my parents (said), ‘It’d be really fun to do something coffee related since we all love coffee,” he said.

With the decision made, the family of coffee-lovers opened Wildfire Coffeehouse on Ann Street in Kaukauna.

Fidlin said both Noah and Ireland had prior experience in the coffee industry – working in two different coffee shops – and that Noah was studying graphic design.

“So they had the coffee knowledge, I had the build-out knowledge (and) my brother had the graphic design knowledge,” he said. “He designed all of our menus, all of our logos – that kind of stuff.”

Ireland, Fidlin said, was also in school at the time studying education while he was pursuing professional opportunities in welding and residential construction.

Roughly three years after opening the coffeehouse, Fidlin said he became sole owner and operator of the Wildfire brand.

Noah has since graduated and gone on to pursue other opportunities, Fidlin said, and Ireland now teaches full-time at the Appleton Public School District, while helping out with the coffeehouse on the side – leaving Fidlin to manage the day-to-day operations of the coffeehouse.

From Kaukauna to Kimberly

Fidlin said Wildfire’s first location in Kaukauna was “not ideal.”

“It was not on a main (street), and we didn’t get a lot of visibility,” he said.

Shortly after they signed the lease on the Kimberly location, Fidlin said the COVID-19 pandemic closed businesses down.

However, he said it didn’t necessarily throw a wrench in his plans.

“We signed the lease a month before everything shut down,” he said. “We were planning on keeping it closed for about a month anyway, because we wanted to do some renovations.”

After those renovations were complete, Fidlin said he and his family noticed business was doing much better at the Kimberly location compared to the one in Kaukauna.

“We actually moved over to the Kimberly location in 2020,” he said. “Our regulars from the Kaukauna (location) drove five minutes down the road to come to the Kimberley location.”

Fidlin said business at the new location was doing much better during the pandemic because of its drive-thru option – a service he said still accounts for “probably 60%” of Wildfire’s business today.

Learning curves, lessons

Though it’s worked out well, Fidlin said he doesn’t suggest managing a start-up business immediately out of high school.

“Probably not super recommended,” he said. “(It involved) a big learning curve (and) a lot of growing up to do real quick.”

While attending school virtually from home, Fidlin said he was able to explore his professional and entrepreneurial interests at the same time – building himself a financial nest egg he then used to fall back on as he worked to get the business off the ground.

Fidlin said a cost-saving strategy he utilizes is buying ingredients for Wildfire’s drink and food menu from local vendors instead of having regular deliveries from distributors.

“It’s cheaper for me to have a car payment, pay the car payment and go and pick (groceries) up than it is for me to pay to get it delivered,” he said.

Fidlin said another advantage of making daily grocery runs, is having fresher food to make Wildfire’s baked goods, sandwiches and more, as well as having less food in the shop at one time to worry about using before it goes bad.

Fidlin said the biggest piece of advice he could give anyone looking to start a business is to start with as much capital as possible – offering his favorite saying of “buy once, cry once.”

“Our equipment was the cheapest of the cheap,” he said. “We found a bunch of stuff used and over time we were just buying (parts) to replace broken equipment.”

Thankfully, Fidlin said, his experience in construction came in handy when repairing broken equipment – something he was content doing until one of his espresso machines caught on fire.

“It was like the middle of the day, during a rush, and I saw smoke coming from this espresso machine, and I’m like, ‘Yep, it’s time to upgrade,’” he said. “(I) replaced the part that was smoking, and then put in (an) order for a really top-of-the-line espresso machine.”

Even now, with those top-of-the-line machines, Fidlin said anything he can fix himself, he will, even if he has to learn how – “YouTube’s great.”

“We’ve spent probably double what we could have on espresso machines alone, just because we’ve had to replace them with cheap ones again and again,” he said. “Buy the good stuff right away, so you don’t have to buy it again.”

Locally grown, homemade

Fidlin said everything offered on Wildfire’s menu – both food and drink – is made and assembled in-house.

“We (make) all of our own scones, muffins, cookies – all the generic baked goods that a coffee house would have,” he said. “And then we assemble all of our sandwiches, all that kind of stuff – everything’s done in-house.”

Fidlin said Wildfire also sources its coffee from a distributor in Chilton – which has served as an important partner in the process of his family navigating the coffee industry.

“Working with local suppliers is really huge,” he said. “The community loves it.”

Now, five years after opening Wildfire’s first coffeehouse, Fidlin said he’s happy with the one location in Kimberly.

“It’s such a saturated market now, the coffee industry,” he said. “We’re very happy with our one location, now that we’ve got all the kinks ironed out.”

If he were ever to consider expanding the Wildfire brand, Fidlin said he’d want to do something more food-centric – proposing the idea of a cafe establishment with a more extensive food menu or catering.

“We have the potential to do (catering), we just haven’t really advertised it yet,” he said.

For now, Fidlin said he and his team will continue serving their customers in the Fox Valley.

To learn more, visit wildfirecoffeehouse.com, or its social media pages.