By Lauri Lee
Northside Economic Development Coalition

As the saying goes, immerse yourself in what you love. For Angelo and Jess Cattaneo, playing with food is a family affair that led them to launch Stella Blu Café at 1 Sherman Terrace in July. The café focuses on an Italian-inspired brunch offered from 9 am–2:30 pm on weekends. The menu features pastries, coffee, espresso and brunch cocktails.

The café is an expansion of the Cattaneo’s original business, Flambé Gourmet, that maximizes the building space. Flambé Gourmet has been located in the back of the building since 2010 and offers catering, cooking classes, and private events in the large, welcoming commercial kitchen.

In Flambé’s heyday, they catered weddings for 300‒400 people, which meant transporting and setting up a temporary kitchen in the woods to host a barn wedding. “Off-site catering was a lot of work, which spurred our idea for Stella Blu Café, partly because it offers daytime dining hours,” said Angelo. “We have three girls ages 1, 3 and 5. Our son is 15 years old. We decided to switch gears and do less off-site catering, which allows for more family time. When the front space of the building came open last year, we felt it was time to pursue our dream of owning a quaint café on the Northside, in the community where we live,” he said.

Angelo has helped open many Madison restaurants, serving as a cook or chef. For the past five years, he has worked as a cook at Epic Systems. “I love cooking in this challenging corporate environment,” he said. “We change our menu every day and it’s extremely rewarding.”

When you love to cook, why not do it all the time? When at home, the family enjoys their weekly pizza night. He and the girls don their matching aprons and make pizza dough, loving their family time together.

Stella Blu Café is located at 1 Sherman Terrace, Madison. Open Saturday and Sunday, 9 am–2:30 pm. Web: Stella-blu.com Phone: 285-9085.