WAUKESHA — Two businesses in Brookfield are preparing for the Republican National Convention which is weeks away. The RNC will be held July 15-18 in downtown Milwaukee. National Bakery & Deli, with locations in Brookfield, Milwaukee and Greendale, announced RNC-themed cookies. There are cookies with former President Donald Trump’s likeness, who is the presumptive Republican nominee, along with cookies with the RNC logo, a red tie and the Republican logo.
Bryant Krauss, co-owner, said they attended a convention in the fall with other Milwaukee-area businesses to promote their bakery.
“It was good visibility for us and now the convention is weeks away so we are interested to see if there is any residual business or anything we may get from that,” Krauss said.
After posting on social media about the cookies, staff at the bakery were surprised by the reaction. There were over 200 comments on the Facebook post.
“It is funny that it is getting so much attention now. It is so polarizing,” Krauss said.
National Bakery has always had fun with events and anything involving the happenings around Milwaukee.
“We always try to stay current with current events. In the past we had (President Joe) Biden and Trump, pretty much the same cookies. With the convention coming to town, we put it out there again and it seems to be getting a lot of play and attention,” he said.
To be fair, the bakery announced it would be offering Democratic National Convention-themed cookie with Biden, a blue tie, and other cookies.
Krauss said there are so many businesses from the area that are doing special things for the RNC.
“It is businesses trying to be active in the community. I don’t think anyone is taking a political stance. We are trying to put on a good face for Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin,” he said.
Krauss added the bakery doesn’t take political stances and doesn’t take anything too seriously.
“If there are things people are interested in, we certainly try to support that,” he said.
The RNC/DNC cookies will be in limited supply and people need to pre-order them. Visit shop.nationalbakery.com for more information.
Nancy Justman, CEO for Visit Brookfield, has a side hustle as owner of Magnolia Soap and Bath Co. in Brookfield.
Magnolia Soap & Bath Co. is a fairly new business that opened in the end of May at 18000 W. Bluemound Rd., Brookfield in the Harvard Square plaza.
They plan to open a second location in late summer/ early fall in Mequon.
The store specializes in handmade products that are chemical-free and plant-based. They make soaps, whipped body butter, sugar scrub and shower oil. They also make shampoos, conditioners, dry shampoo, shave soaps, laundry wash, candles, bath bombs, shower steamers and more.
“We were looking for something different to do for our hotel guests who will be here during the RNC. We just kept thinking about other ideas. I thought about a special soap. Since people are here and need to shower, the Uncle Sam soap was born,” Justman said.
They knew they wanted the soap to be an American flag and play up that the RNC is in Milwaukee. Justman said it checks off all the boxes, it is handmade, made in Wisconsin and made in the community they are staying in. An added bonus is it is useful and it looks cool, according to the owner.
“The soap is a special design half bar with the State of Wisconsin stamped into it, the scent is called Uncle Sam. It is a very gender-neutral scent to accommodate everyone,” she said.
They have orders for over 2,500 bars thus far and are happy to take more orders if other hotels or businesses are interested.
Visit Brookfield is the convention and visitor’s bureau in Brookfield. They are planning on doing welcoming bags for guests that are staying in Brookfield for the convention.
There are 1,841 rooms in the city of Brookfield and the welcome bags will be made for those rooms. Inside the welcome bag will be a Visit Brookfield welcome note, a visitor’s guide, soap and other giveaways.
The Uncle Sam soap is exclusive to the RNC, but they will have another version that will be available by the end of the week for anyone to purchase.