“Grá” means love
from Michael Shaughnessy and family
Michael Shaughnessy (Creator/Owner) of Westbrook, Maine hand paints all GráKake packaging.
GráKakes were created by Michael Shaughnessy and are produced in a commercial kitchen at the Shaughnessy Family home in Westbrook, Maine. Alongside Michael, the eldest son, Theo, works on sales, marketing, and preparation of the GráKakes. Alongside Michael and Theo, Malory and three more sons, Avery, Ciarán, and Tulleigh (and all of their partners and children), farm, taste, spread the word, and advise for all things GráKake.
the story of GráKake
(as the sons know it)
From “Matzo Brei”
It was the 1980’s, and a young, hungry sculptor walked into a Jewish diner on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and ordered a “Matzo Brei”, an Ashkenazi Jewish Passover breakfast dish serving butter-browned matzo sheets with scrambled eggs. This was Michael’s first encounter with a concept that would eventually become GráKake.
Then “Crackers and Eggs”
In the 1990’s, Michael (at this point, we’re just calling him “Dad”) was an art professor in Maine raising four sons on a modest budget with his wife Malory (that’s “Mom”). On busy school mornings, Dad would whisk together eggs and crumbled saltines (and sometimes shredded cheese) and pan fry the mixture into something like a hand-held omelet. It was quick and it was filling. It was "Crackers and Eggs" and all of us boys loved them. It went on like this for decades.
To “GráKake”
In 2012, Dad went on a cross-country road trip to find wonderment in the transporting of a large hay ball on a small car for a book he still needs to write (yes, really). On this trip, Dad was inspired by the food truck culture of the other Portland (the one in Oregon). It occurred to him that Crackers and Eggs could be the perfect grab-and-go food truck food.
Luckily, Mom thought he could do much better than just some fried crackers and eggs. Specifically, she thought it would be better if it wasn’t fried… and didn’t contain crackers or eggs.
Years of experimentation ensued… what was once “Crackers and Eggs” was now something more akin to the oat cakes of our family’s Irish and Norwegian heritage. The “GráKake” was born.
“Grá” means “love” in Gaelic.
“Kake” means, well, “cake” in Norsk.
You see, its more than just another meat substitute. It’s a new food, with old roots.
the Farm at Conant Homestead
We call our home “The Farm at Conant Homestead”, named after the late Ellie Conant, who lived on this property and fed the Westbrook community with baked goods and warmth for many, many years. Also, her father farmed the property under the name Conant Vegetables and Berries and gave summer work to many local youths. The Conant Homestead has existed since the 1768, filled with gardens, animals, music, and events, and we have chosen to carry on the rich tradition of this land. We pay great respect to the pre-colonial history of this land as well. Our communities in Southern Maine were once the land of the Abenaki. In honor of the first stewards of this land, we have erected an informational memorial to Chief Polin and the Abenaki on a parcel of the property that is maintained by the Portland Trails land trust.
