Lunch with Santa is salvaged at North Shore Boulangerie
The pandemic canceled all those traditional lunches with Santa, but his handlers at North Shore Boulangerie in Shorewood have found a work-around, with a hand from Milwaukee organ restorer and builder Peters, Weiland & Co. It’s not every day that an organ specialist helps construct a gingerbread-person-delivery system, but J. Stanton Peters played a key role in the French bakery-cafe’s scheme.
North Shore Boulangerie clearly couldn’t have its annual tête-à-tête between Santa and children to discern their goodness, always accompanied by brunch with their parents in the cafe. At least, not in the usual way.
Gene Webb, the bakery’s founder, took note of the old building’s display windows and display stages that span the building’s corner and decided that’s where Santa could sit, greeting children and their parents on the sidewalk from behind the glass. Each child will chat with Santa through a two-way speaker system at a reserved time.
Then Santa will gesture toward the gift box on a stand on the sidewalk, the lid rises by itself and the child can reach inside the box and retrieve a gingerbread person with the child’s name already on it. This being 2020, a staff member then goes over the gift box with sanitizing wipes before the next child approaches the window where Santa sits.
What does building an organ have in common with building a gift box that opens magically with a gesture from
Santa Claus (actually, remote control)? Think springs. Think electronics.
When Webb asked his longtime friend if he could construct a wooden box that would open remotely, Peters came up with a plan. “As an organ builder, to make a box, that was nothing. That was easy,” Peters said. The rest was somewhat trickier, especially rigging a spring so the top would open fluidly.
The organ parts on hand at Peters, Weiland came in handy. A 12-volt power supply, thumb piston, pallet spring and other bits and bobs later — “You’re not going to find all these things in a hardware store,” Peters said — box was ready to go. The first Sunday of Santa in the Window, Dec. 13, sold out. Santa’s back on Dec. 20, though. Although a chat with Santa and the takeout brunch require a reservation, anyone can view the gingerbread village in North Shore Boulangerie’s window, to the north of where Santa sits. Pastry chef MK Drayna’s cookie creation has become an annual event.
This year’s village is Santa’s North Pole in gingerbread form. The buildings are lighted from within, so it’s easy to view even after dark. (The bakery is open, so people can go inside to see the village, but the view inside and from the sidewalk are identical.) The focal point, Drayna said by email, is Santa and Mrs. Claus’ house; the couple are sitting in their Christmas gazebo outside. Santa’s workshop is on the north side of the display — cookie reindeer stand in “snow” outside it — and of course there is a gingerbread bakery in the village.
Visitors can look for the pastry chef ’s favorite details: macarons decorated to look like Christmas presents, tiny gingerbread people outside the bakery and the reindeer cookies.