In August of 2022, MW Pastry opens its bakery doors in the brand-new Altona Center development in downtown Vergas.
Hungry customers find homemade doughnuts, scones, muffins, cinnamon rolls, caramel rolls plus a robust menu of catering options, all made by a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, California.
Impressive, right?
Then you meet chef and owner Madison Waller. The Pelican Rapids High School Class of 2018 Madison Waller. 22-year-old Madison Waller.
Starting a business at such an early age? More impressive!
Madison admits she is on the learning curve. She describes the venture as “scary” and states the obvious: “I’ve never opened up a shop before. It’s crazier than I expected.” But in the same breath, she’s totally into the whole thing.
It helps to have her baking skills honed by the culinary instructors, some of the best chefs in the nation. Plus she had some baking mentors in the family and started baking when she was eight.
After graduating from culinary school, Madison picked up experience at Spanky’s Stone Hearth near Vergas and spent a couple of years working at restaurants out west. She was the head pastry chef at one restaurant, and then joined a pastry team at Big Sky in Montana.
Madison just loved baking, so working in the field helped her realize her passion. Then fate played a hand in this story.
A hand that brought her back here.
Home for the holidays months ago and “not really planning anything,” she was contacted with an offer: would she consider opening a pastry shop in a new building in Vergas?
“I wasn’t planning something like that at all, but it was perfect timing,” she said, and she took on the challenge. And Vergas is better for it!
She says she’s learned a lot so far, including that fact that everything “seems to take three times longer than you expect.” She has a good support network, having grown up nearby. In her spare time, Madison can relax with her cat, Chef, or by taking in a cooking competition show. Her fav? Nailed It! on Netflix.
Which show would she want to compete on?
“I would do any baking show,” she laughs. “I cannot cook at all, but any baking show, I would take on.”
Madison reflects on the past many months. “I never imagined myself coming back here. I always thought I’d be in some big city somewhere in the world,” she said. “But I’m very happy and excited that I was kind of brought back here. Vergas is one of the best towns I could have picked, I think.”
Looking ahead, there’s a lot of baking for the holidays, finding helpers for the business and marketing her catering business for weddings and other events.
When asked about her definition of Live Wide Open, Madison gets it. “For me, Live Wide Open means to challenge yourself. Don’t’ hold back on something. I’m very young with my own business but I didn’t want to work for anybody else so I kind of went with it, went for it. So far so good.”
Visit MW Pastry in Vergas and you’ll discover a lot of “so good” on the menu!
Editor’s Note: MW Pastry’s winter hours are Wed. thru Sun., 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. You can find her shop right downtown Vergas, 105 East Main Street. Learn more at https://www.mwpastrymn.com/.
