It has been a week.
We’ve been working so hard that I’ve gone to bed by 8 PM more than once — and slept like a baby each time! My staff has been giving everything they’ve got, and I couldn’t be more grateful for their dedication, positivity, and incredible teamwork.
Jewish holidays shift every year, and depending on where they fall during the week, our order patterns change completely. This year, everything landed at once — and we felt it! We’re already over 2,000 sufganiyot and 2,000 latkes, and still going strong. Our team has earned every ounce of appreciation.
To give you a little behind-the-scenes peek:
Sufganiyot start at 5 AM. Our pastry team comes in early, mixes the dough fresh each morning, rolls it out, cuts, fries, fills, sugars — all by hand. It’s a multihour labor of love.
Latkes? Each one is individually fried on the stovetop. No shortcuts. No machines. Just patience, consistency, and the smell of frying oil that will follow us home for days.
And in the middle of this latke-and-doughnut marathon, we’ve also catered event after event — the Community-Wide Hanukkah Celebration, Golden Alliance with Ovation, the Harry & Rose Samson Family JCC Health Center Hanukkah Dinner, the MJF staff Hanukkah party, food for the “Violins of Hope” event at Milwaukee Public Library, and so many more. Honestly, I can’t even list everything — and if you know us, you know we hate to say no. This week just stretched us in every direction.
Then something happened that stopped us in our tracks.
We received a card from a couple whose wedding we catered two years ago — handwritten, thoughtful, unexpected. In the middle of the chaos, it reminded us exactly why we do this. Yes, it’s about good food and good parties… but really, it’s about connection.
We have built relationships with families and organizations for years, by feeding them and celebrating with them, and that connection is what makes the long hours worth it.
In that spirit of togetherness, we’re launching Mosaic Events — starting with our Israeli Brunch on January 11th, and continuing on the second Sunday of each month. Our hope is simple: to bring people together to eat, gather, and connect. To make space for joy and community.
Hanukkah is a season of light, and this year began with so much darkness. But even in that, we have to find ways to bring light back into the world — through gathering, through kindness, through showing up for one another. No matter our differences, no matter where we come from, we are one people, and we shine brighter together.
We’ll continue making doughnuts in the café over the next week or so — because who doesn’t need a little more sweetness right now? Stop in, grab a bite, say hi. Let’s celebrate the light together.
