WAUPUN — Dining in Waupun has never been the same since Waupun staple Goose Shot shut down operations a few years ago. The property where the Goose Shot was previously located was purchased by Todd and Shae Cupery who previously ran Big Todd’s Pizza before moving to Texas. The new restaurant will be named Main Street Bistro and Bakery and will serve a variety of bistro and bakery menu items.
Main Street Bistro and Bakery previously catered the Waupun Heritage Museum at their unveiling of the Clarence Shaler exhibit back in March.
For a special promo, Main Street Bistro and Bakery baked a limited number of pizzas in the same style of Big Todd’s during the Waupun Wine Walk last week. Todd emphasized that while he enjoyed making pizzas, they felt that the community would be better served by a bistro and hometown bakery.
The Main Street Bistro and Bakery will be holding their grand opening ceremony on June 2nd, with their official first day of operation on June 3rd.
JAEDON BUCHHOLZ (WPN): Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.
TODD and SHAE CUPERY: Thanks for coming out.
BUCHHOLZ: So I just had a couple questions so I hope to not make this too long. First, how long have you been back in Waupun and in this building [at the former Goose Shot]?
SHAE CUPERY: We moved here, and we bought this building, on February 1st of last year [2022].
BUCHHOLZ: Did you immediately start planning for a restaurant or was that an opportunity that just came out of the building?
SHAE: I’ll just tell you the backstory to this. So of course Todd lived in Waupun when we got married fifteen years ago, and after we closed Big Todd’s we moved to Texas. Todd actually went to school to be an automotive mechanic, and after doing that for a few years he decided to open his own business. After doing that for a few years it ended up translating into not just fixing vehicles, but parting them out. So he would bring those rust-free parts up here and sell them. We probably did that for about seven or six years. We ended up renting a space from someone around here on Gateway. So we had our own space and that was awesome, but that building was being sold so we started looking for a space and we just decided we needed to have our own building here as we were coming up from Texas every month.
BUCHHOLZ: Right.
SHAE: So our realtor showed us this building and we were like “that’s way too big.” But the first time we walked through it we were like, “wait a minute, there’s something about this.” And so we asked to see it again and we ended up really liking it. And well, it had a restaurant in it, and this town needs a restaurant. And since it was here it felt wrong to not do it, so that’s why it felt like it was what we were supposed to do.
BUCHHOLZ: When are you going to have your grand opening?
SHAE: We’re going to have our ribbon cutting ceremony on June 2nd and the grand opening on the 3rd.
BUCHHOLZ: What are your hours going to be?
SHAE: We’re going to be open from 7AM to 2PM Tuesday through Saturday.
BUCHHOLZ: So it’s more of a breakfast/lunch kind of thing?
SHAE: It is. And we were going to have the big kicker for us is that we’re going to have a full bakery. So we’ll have retail baked goods to sell, and everything is made in house. We buy everything wholesale and everything is going to be baked fresh. All of our breads that we’ll use for lunch and stuff will be baked fresh every morning. We’re really excited about that point, for me that’s what I’m most excited about.
TODD: And it’s all run in-house, though it’s actually two separate kitchens. She’s got her own bakery kitchen then we have the kitchen for the bistro.
BUCHHOLZ: Interesting. So last week there was the Waupun Wine Walk, and you guys had a special promotion where you did the Big Todd’s pizzas. Are you planning on having that be a part of your usual menu or is that going to be only an occasional promotional thing?
TODD: Occasional. It won’t be a constant thing.
SHAE: I want people to understand that it’s really a separate thing. I love the town and how many people have supported and miss Big Todd’s. But I want people to understand that the Bistro is a separate thing from any time we would do Big Todd’s. Big Todd’s for us is a heartfelt thing, he really loved doing it. We’d love to do it for a special weekend, if people say “hey we want a pizza”, but it’s a completely separate thing from the normal Bistro menu.
BUCHHOLZ: I see. So what is the menu going to include then?
SHAE: It’ll be your typical breakfast items along with bakery items, and then for lunch we’ll have a soup and salad bar, some grilled sandwiches and things like that. A few things will be a little different, like a quinoa bowl and what we call “The Big Baker” or “The Texas Baker”, that’s just something you’ll have to try when you see it. We’re going to introduce a few fun things, like we’re going to have a Texas-shaped waffle because I’m from Texas. But otherwise I would say a basic bristo-y, bakery kind of foods.
BUCHHOLZ: Are you still hiring new employees?
SHAE: Yes, we are accepting applications right now.
BUCHHOLZ: So you used to run Big Todd’s, but that was a bit before my time. How long was that run for, actually?
TODD: I opened in July 1994 and ran it until February of 2007. So quite a few years.
BUCHHOLZ: Thank you again for taking the time to talk to me, it was such an interesting conversation and I’m sure a lot of people are really interested to hear about this.
SHAE: No problem at all.
TODD: Thanks again for coming.
