Elisa Marshall, Founder of Maman

Elisa Marshall, Founder of Maman

May 1, 2026 · 34 min

About this episode

Elisa Marshall shares her journey of founding Maman and the personal motivations behind it.

In this episode of the Miracle Mama podcast, Whitney sits down with Elisa Marshall, co-founder of Maman, the beloved café and lifestyle brand that started as one tiny shop in SoHo and has now grown to 54 locations across North America. Elisa shares the origin story of Maman, born out of a deeply personal desire to create a space that felt like home in the middle of New York City. Raised by a stay-at-home mom who was also a private chef and an entrepreneurial father in the suburbs of Toronto, Elisa always knew she wanted to build something of her own. After quitting her corporate jobs alongside her now-husband Ben — and spending a formative season running a restaurant in Ibiza — the two opened Maman in SoHo in 2014 with family heirlooms, free labor from loved ones, and a whole lot of heart. The name "Maman" came naturally. In every conversation about the concept, they kept coming back to one thing: their moms. The recipes, the warmth, the feeling of being at your grandmother's kitchen table, that was the experience they wanted to recreate for New Yorkers far from home. Elisa opens up about what it truly took to build the brand, bootstrapping through the first five locations…

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