New owners keep things dairy delicious
If there is one thing that will always unite Wisconsinites, it’s dairy. Whether it’s a dairy festival, a dairy breakfast, a cheese plate at a house party, or a bucket of Kemps, people will always gather together to enjoy the Wisconsin staple. And while dairy is an essential part of bringing the residents of Wisconsin together, it’s also the backbone of many Wisconsin businesses. Cody Baldwin, owner of Man Made LLC, knows personally how important dairy truly is when it comes to keeping a restaurant on its feet.
Baldwin and his girlfriend Chelsea Shook opened Man Made LLC in Rib Lake on January 1 of this year after purchasing the restaurant from Chris and Jim Mann who originally opened the store under the name of Mann Made in 2005. The restaurant is well known for its large variety of ice cream flavors and hearty pizzas.
“I think dairy is very important. Obviously it’s a staple of our existence,” said Baldwin when talking about the role that dairy plays in his business. During the summer months, Man Made LLC goes through about 60 to 70 gallons of milk and 120 to 150 pounds of cheese in a week. This might seem like an excessive amount of dairy, but given that each Man Made pizza is topped with three quarters of a pound of cheese, it makes sense.
All Man Made pizzas are made with a 5 cheese blend and either an original or thin crust. One of their most popular pizzas is their Roadkill pizza, a meatlovers pizza with a barbeque base and a very Wisconsin name. A few other popular pizzas include the Deluxe, Philly, and Hawaiian. Baldwin stated that if the pizza is made correctly, it should end up weighing about 2 pounds. He strongly believes that pizzas should have weight to them and you should never skimp out when adding toppings and cheese.
Alongside their fully loaded pizzas, Man Made LLC has a wide variety of ice cream. The restaurant cycles through about 40 flavors of ice cream and carries 16 flavors in store at one time. Unsurprisingly, two of the most popular flavors are vanilla and chocolate. When asked about the other popular ice cream flavors, Baldwin said that he believes that it largely depends on the customer’s age. The younger customers seem to enjoy more fruity flavors like Superman and Bubble gum while the older generations enjoy flavors like Maple Nut and Pecan.
Besides selling ice cream by the scoop, the store also sells Pints, Shakes, Malts, Root Beer Floats, Banana Splits, and Storms. Storms are similar to the popular Dairy Queen Blizzard, and are made out of a thicker ice cream and as many toppings as you can handle. Baldwin tries to only purchase Kemps ice cream due to its Wisconsin roots.
“Hopefully I’d like to move into more local buying for dairy products,” Baldwin explained when he talked about the difficulties of trying to purchase local dairy products and his future hopes of ordering from local distributors. For now, Baldwin buys most of his products from the wholesalers Sysco and Reinhart, and purchases the store’s milk from Kwik Trip to show his support for Wisconsin made businesses.
“We hope to strive and keep our community happy,” stated Baldwin. Alongside providing delicious food, Baldwin and Shook recently showed their appreciation for their community and customers by extending their hours to include Mondays. The restaurant is now open 7 days a week from 11:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
