When Cheryl Ursillo began trying to market her gourmet stuffed quahogs, she didn’t encounter much difficulty convincing retailers to carry them.
The hard part was finding a company to make the seafood savories the way her late mother, Grace, did.
Ursillo, founder and CEO of Grace’s Stuffies, filled her first order last spring for Dave’s Fresh Marketplace. Her frozen stuffed quahogs are found in all 10 Dave’s locations, and she now sells to Belmont Market in South Kingstown, Kyler’s Catch Seafood Market in New Bedford and Metro Lobster & Seafood in Warwick.
But before Ursillo filled her first order, she had to hire a co-packer able to replicate the recipe that her mother used for decades.
“Finding someone … to get the taste and the texture” was challenging, said Ursillo, who finally settled on Yankee Trader in Pembroke, Mass.
Ursillo, a retired teacher and administrator, found the recipe when she was going through her mother’s belongings after her death in 2007.
“I’d like to get into as many of the larger New England retail stores as I can,” she said.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Graham@PBN.com.