Obviously I am caught in some sort of tribute to nostalgia of late…and wedding themed to boot! September is my wedding anniversary month so perhaps that is the impetus of this latest musing.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding is one of my all time favorite movies! Watching the characters maneuver their respective families, cultures and heritage was delightful and thought provoking. They did it with grace and humor…similar to Manos Soap Company’s seamless homage to Kay Manos and her efforts in the early 1900’s to bring her Greek heritage to both baked goods and soap making!
She opened a bakery in Brooklyn with her brother and sought to share her family recipes with the community. Baking and soapmaking you ask? Actually it is not a reach to go from one to the other…both use a blender, lots of bowls and require a great deal of patience in “setting up” the final product before consumption!
Today Manos Soap Co. pays homage to our maternal grandmother, Kay, and what she began many years ago in a tiny Brooklyn kitchen. Back then “small batch” was not a reason to boast or brag and did not carry marketing savoir faire as it does today. It simply was what one did!
Today we are proud to share our handcrafted, small batch soap bars. Manos Soaps are locally produced in our Arvada atelier. A photo of Kate presides over our small intimate workshop where the finest ingredients are mixed to produce a natural, nutrient rich, vegan, and sulfate, paraben, phthalate, gluten and palm oil free bar of soap!
We are fortunate to have access to a greater variety of ingredients than Kay had available back in the day, but we still respect the love and care she infused in each and every bar of soap she produced.
One of my favorite lines from My Big Fat Greek Wedding is from Gus: “There are two kinds of people, Greeks and everyone else who wish they were Greek.” Here at Manos Soap Co. we have taken the liberty to alter Gus’s words slightly to:
There are two kinds of soap, Manos Soap, and every other soap who wishes it was a Manos Soap and where is the Windex!