The Brooklyn Ink

Karen Freer: Free Bread

Satiating a craving is logical: find it, obtain, and eat it. But after a 2007 diagnosis with celiac disease, Karen Freer desperately wanted a dinner roll and was without options. Celiac is an autoimmune disorder [...]

Matt O’Leary: New York Stock Company

In January 2011, Matt O’Leary and his business partner, William Frischeisen, started The New York Stock Company to provide an alternative to cooking stock that has no added salt, additives or preservatives. The brand also [...]

Kelsey Leland: Cake Bites

Kelsey Leland has always loved baking, so after graduating from Manhattan’s Natural Gourmet Institute in 2011, where she specialized in vegan and gluten-free pastries, she was ready to catapult her hobby to a business. Leland [...]

Paul Hine: Uttapam

Paul Hine of Uttapam & Co. has always had the do-it-yourself gene, but when he switched tracks after a decade from software developer to a food purveyor, he had a bit of learning to do. [...]

Alex Crosier: Granola Lab

Alex Crosier is both the driving force behind Granola Lab and a part-time librarian at New York University. It is difficult, she concedes, to maintain both jobs. But without a business partner, she is frightened [...]

Tastemakers in Brooklyn: 15 Profiles of Artisan Producers

Michelle Lewis: Spoonable

When Michelle Lewis launched Spoonable, a decadent line of caramel sauces, in September 2011, she knew it was a risk, as all entrepreneurial endeavors are, but with one failed startup already under her belt, she [...]

Chris Woehrle: Kings County Jerky Company

Before opening for business in November 2010, Chris Woehrle was an art director in the music industry. Since he cooked nearly every day and it enjoyed it much more than his day job, Woehrle decided [...]

Ann Chung Mellman: We Rub You

Before she was a Korean barbecue sauce producer, Ann Chung Mellman was an engineering student at Columbia. She got her degree but never worked as an engineer. Instead, Mellman held out to work with her [...]

Danielle Ricciardi and Daniel Strong: Chickpea and Olive

A love story turned business venture, Chickpea and Olive serves what its owners call “peace on plate”– farm-to-table organic, vegan, local fare which they sell at markets year round. They also do catering and host [...]