Cafe Grazie in Rockland

When Marjory Sweet and Marcy Taubes first met on a Maine beach in 2020, they were struck by an unusual sense of recognition. “It was this shock of familiarity,” Marcy says. “We had lived these parallel lives without ever meeting.” Both had spent years farming. Both had lived in Italy. Both had built pop-ups connecting agriculture and cooking. As Marjory puts it, “There was a shared sensibility about how to approach food that felt rare.”

Marjory was living in New Mexico at the time, but soon made the abrupt decision to move back to Maine. Once reunited, the two began hosting small pop-ups, then baking out of a commercial kitchen, and eventually imagining something more permanent.

Their café, Cafe Grazie, opened with support from Derek Richard and Rickie Fainkujen, who purchased the building and helped them build out the space. “It is a unique partnership,” Marjory says. “They believed in what we were trying to create.”

Cafe Grazie is shaped by a rigorous sourcing philosophy and years spent close to food. “Every piece of produce is from a farmer we know,” Marjory says. “Even the fry oil is a high-quality olive oil. The rigor is there even if we do not list every purveyor on the menu.” Breakfast stays steady with items like the breakfast sandwich, burrito, frittata, and porridge. Lunch moves with the seasons, with rotating pastas, salads, and legumes. The small market shelves ingredients they use at home and in the café, along with wines they are excited about.

Certain items have already become local favorites: the olive oil cake, cardamom buns, maple scones, pignoli cookies, and whatever pasta is on for lunch. “Our friend Jesse orders an olive oil cake and a cortado, or the pasta and a Caesar,” Marjory says. “That is the heart of what we do.”

If there is a signature beyond the food, it is the atmosphere. “Sometimes people walk in and are speechless,” Marcy says. “They just say, I love this place. The energy here.” The space is filled with the work of friends and local makers, from handmade tables to locally built speakers, creating a feeling that is both intentional and relaxed.

What they hope people understand most is the depth of the work behind it. “If the food tastes really good, it is because there are years of experience and a lot of care behind every choice we make,” Marjory says. “The sourcing, the cooking, the people. All of it comes through.”

Cafe Grazie is still young, but the connection that started it is steady and unmistakable. You can feel it the moment you walk in.

FAMOUS FOR:
Their olive oil cake. The cardamom buns and maple scones. Exceptional sourcing and ingredients.

ADDRESS:
148 S Main St in Rockland, ME

WEBSITE:
doublegrazie.world

photos by Peter Logue