What Stella's Bakery is known for
Founded in 1988 by Max Harn Sr. and now run by his daughter Jennifer, Stella's traces its signature hot and spicy cheese bread to a failed empanada dough that baker Coralia Harn recovered by mixing the filling straight into bread dough. Sold from its Regent Street café and still anchored by the Dane County Farmers' Market, the bread now ships nationwide via Goldbelly.
Max Harn Sr. founded Stella's Bakery in Madison in 1988; his daughter Jennifer now runs the business, which has built its reputation on a single accidental invention. Coralia Harn, working the bakery's ovens, was attempting to make an empanada when the dough gave her trouble; rather than start over, she mixed the filling directly into bread dough and sold the result the next day at the Dane County Farmers' Market.
That bread became Stella's hot and spicy cheese bread, now considered a Wisconsin food landmark. The farmers' market remains central to the business; by the bakery's own account, roughly 95 percent of its income still comes from Saturday mornings during market season, even after decades of growth.
The bakery has since moved its storefront to Regent Street, where it now operates as a café serving pastries, sandwiches and coffee alongside its bread. Beyond Madison, the cheese bread ships nationwide through Goldbelly, with a particular following in the Chicago area.
Best for — Wisconsin hot and spicy cheese bread
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Where next
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