Waterloo residents have extended a warm welcome to a new downtown cafe in the past month, enjoying a range of coffee beverages and a varied selection of baked goods with a particular focus on laminated dough.

Lauren Tepper of Zera Artisan Bakery spoke about the business she developed alongside her husband Scott.

Tepper is known in the community for her previous business, Skiptotheloo Cookie Co. Her specialty being sugar cookies, Skiptotheloo did much to lay the groundwork for the new downtown location.

With a strong passion for baking already, Tepper was also inspired to establish Zera thanks to her and her husband’s shared love of local cafes.

There was also a strong interest in setting up a new space in Waterloo for people to enjoy their time together. With the couple having found Waterloo to be a comfortable, slow-paced home when they moved from St. Louis over a decade ago, Tepper said she wanted customers to feel a similar comfort – like they’re visiting her house.

“We just wanted to create a space for people to come and gather and have time to sit down and have a conversation with each other,” Tepper said. “My husband and I frequent coffee shops all the time. That’s like our thing to do. So we go all over St. Louis, and when we’re out of town, we find ‘What’s the best coffee shop in the area?’”

Eager to combine her interest in cookies and coffee, Skiptotheloo shut down last year, with renovations for Zera taking place at 101 S. Main Street – the historic former Commercial State Bank building – in the months that followed.

The bakery offers a number of options when it comes to beverages and baked goods alike, with their menu featuring a number of coffee shop staples as well as some seasonal drinks.

Tepper spoke with particular passion about the baked offerings, emphasizing the croissants and similar pastries.

“We specialize in the laminated dough, so the croissants, trying to get that real thin, flakey layer,” Tepper said. “Chocolate croissants, we sell out of those so fast.”

She said this same style of dough is used for her distinct sugar buns, a pastry so good that, as she said, they’ve made folks who have tried them downright emotional.

Tepper also drew attention to her sourdough offerings, meant to be particularly healthy. She noted her sourdough bagels and loaves and expressed her appreciation for the bakery’s sourdough starter, affectionately named Otis.

Plenty of work went into getting the bakery’s offerings where she wanted them. As she explained, she’s a bit of a perfectionist.

“It’s been a long process,” Tepper said. “Two years of trial and error, and I’m a little obsessive, so I don’t stop unless I get something right. I see something and I know that this is the way that it’s supposed to be… ‘This croissant is supposed to open up, and it’s supposed to do this when I cut it open,’ and I won’t stop until I get it to what I want it to be.”

With Zera having operated for over a month now, Tepper said the business saw some tremendous support from the community as it first opened.

Folks seem to have responded nicely both to the food and the space itself. Tepper said she’s heard some comments about how the cafe feels like it belongs in New York.

“The response I think has been really great,” Tepper said. “That’s always really encouraging. It’s always scary when you open up something new and you don’t know if people are gonna show up… But the town has just shown up, and every morning there’s people waiting to get pastries, which is amazing.”

As the start has been successful, Tepper said she’s interested in offering more to the community based on what folks are interested in.

She mentioned adding more to the menu as her team gets more comfortable, suggesting the possibility of adding flatbreads as more of a dinner option.

Along those lines, she also raised the possibility of extending the cafe’s hours based on community interest.

“We want to be open later in the day,” Tepper said. “We’ve always said if the town shows up, we’ll stay open later. There is a place in St. Louis that’s open until 10 at night. We would go get dinner, and then we would go get a coffee and sit there and have a late-night date. People drink coffee later, and we have decaf.”

Zera Artisan Bakery is currently open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday at 101 S. Main Street in Waterloo.

For more information, visit zeraartisanbakery.square.site.