In 1998, I got my first sailboat, a 22' Catalina. I didn't know how to fix its outboard but I did know how to cook breakfast. So I set up my camp stoves on the dock and invited over my marina mates.

It was nothing fancy - cheap pancakes from those little yellow jugs that you add water to, and some syrup I had borrowed from the local diner. But our dock breakfast became a weekend tradition.

And one morning, a guy from D dock looked over the water, sparkling in the sun like diamonds, and exclaimed with a big smile: "THIS is the BEST restaurant in the whole world. We should call it (as he glanced at his chipped mug of coffee).... the Cracked Mug!"
Then my mentor said "Melanie, I predict one day you will have a breakfast place and call it the Cracked Mug".  
And I wondered....

In 2003, my sons were playing football at Princeton High School.
It's not easy to get a teamful of teenage boys motivated early on a weekend morning, so I helped Coach Ev by creating a Game Day Breakfast.

And this was no ordinary pancake drill! We had a carving station, a spread station. Dads flipped fresh omelets and Moms ran the smoothie bar.

They called me the Breakfast Queen but it was really our whole team of parents who made it legendary!  We served 140 players, coaches, trainers, and cheerleaders a multi-course breakfast every Saturday of football season for over a decade! 

Ever since, breakfast has been an event for me.

I raised my 4 sons, partly in our home in NJ and partly in our Ford van as we road-tripped back and forth across the United States. Together, we covered all 50 states and almost 50 national parks.

Before I knew it, I was designing trips for my friends, and all of their friends. So in 2007 I made it into a business which I called Rare Finds Travel Design, named for its unique lodging (from treehouses to lighthouses, cave hotels to castles).

I befriended BnB owners all over the world and wondered if one day, I might have one of my own.

In 2016 when Cuba reopened for US travel, I was ready!

I starting escorting small groups of 8 or 10 people for a one-of-a-kind experience. We stayed at my favorite Old Town "casa", ate at my favorite "paladares" (private restaurants), and hung out with my guides and drivers who were like family.

This was the first time that I had personally hosted travelers, taken care of them, and kept them happy and safe while they explored.

And boy, did that bring me joy!

In 2019 I found the old Odom house on Zillow and my life changed forever!

I was "a person from away", had only been coming to the island for a handful of years. But Monhegan felt like home to me, and I had to stay.

At the Cracked Mug BnB, I got to love you all up with our 3-course 5* breakfasts - then give you a big smile alongside your pie at our dessert bar, Nite Nite Fattys!

I was so "in my element" with hospitality that I wanted a bigger sandbox, a commercial kitchen where I could create all sorts of tempting food experiences.

So we started looking for a bigger cupboard for the Mug.