Meghann Hennen doesn’t make just any challah, the Jewish braided bread that traditionally has an egg wash.
Challah at Meg, the one-woman bakery she runs out of her Shaker Heights home, may be a no-frills operation, but her challahs are anything but basic. Customers can choose from more than 20 flavors. They include a challah filled with organic apricot preserves and mascarpone; a challah rolled in organic cinnamon and organic brown sugar, and a stuffed pizza challah that has sauce, pepperoni and a three-cheese blend. Instead of being the customary foot in length, her challahs are 18 inches.
The micro-bakery is the toddler teacher’s Side Hustle. (She also has two other Side Hustles: Fine artist and ballet teacher.)
I say, ‘Here’s your challah. Here’s your baby.’ They love that aspect of my business: Getting to see in advance what they’re going to get.
Meghann Hennen of Challah at Meg on sending her customers photos of their pre-ordered bread, straight out of the oven.
Some buy Hennen’s challahs solely as a treat, while others buy them for religious reasons. Challah is used during Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, observed weekly from Friday evening until Saturday evening. It is a time of rest and worship.
Buying loaves from Challah at Meg could entail more than placing an order several days in advance and then waiting on a text that they’re ready for pickup or delivery. Sometimes customers, especially those with health issues, will ask Hennen to recite a blessing for them as she braids the strands of dough.
“The three strands of the challah can mean love, connection and justice,” she said. “But there are many things that you can make those three strands be.”
How Challah at Meg got its clever name
Hennen texts customers, or posts on social media, photos of their loaves straight out of the oven.
“I say, ‘Here’s your challah,’’’ she said. “‘Here’s your baby.’ They love that aspect of my business: Getting to see in advance what they’re going to get. I’ve been doing that for the entire four years – and it doesn’t get old.”
Hennen started making challah during the early days of the pandemic, with no intention of starting a business. After trying her challah, friends insisted that she launch an entrepreneurial venture. They even helped her come up with a name for the business.
She had decided on Meg’s Challah. A friend since high school told her she needed something more catchy. The friend told Hennen that challah kind of sounded like holla, the HIp-Hop term for holler. (Close enough. However, the first syllable of challah is pronounced from the throat.)
“I started calling it Challah at Meg, and making jokes about it,” she said. “It kind of stuck, and I just kept it.”
Challah at Meg grew out of the pandemic
Hennen used to work as a toddler teacher at a Jewish school. On Fridays, the teachers and students would celebrate Shabbat.
“We would light the candles and we would say the blessing over the grape juice,” she said. “Then we would say the blessing over the challah and then we would eat the challah together.”
In March 2020, Gov. Mike DeWine ordered most of the economy shut down in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus in the early days of the pandemic. The school would still celebrate Shabbat, but on Zoom. Hennen became responsible for delivering loaves to about a dozen families.
The last time Hennen had made challah was as a teenager: Just a time or two as a youth group activity. Still, she was compelled to make the bread for her students and their families instead of buying it.
“I think what motivated me the most was that challah is about bringing people together,” she said. “I wanted to do something to show that even though we weren’t together in person, we were going to be together through Zoom.”
Hennen didn’t even have a challah recipe. She asked around for some. Then she started experimenting with the ones she received and those she found online.
“I was able to follow a recipe and actually make something that tasted good,” Hennen said. “The first few that I made were not the best. But through a lot of trial and error, and finding the recipe that works for me, I came up with something really nice.”
Social media helps in building a business
Hennen had been active on social media for years, often sharing stories about her life as an artist. She also shared stories about growing up with an auditory processing disorder, a condition that makes it hard to understand speech. She told of how she believed schools hadn’t done the best job of understanding and helping her with this challenge.
When Hennen first started making challah, it was only natural that she would share her new passion on Instagram and Facebook. Hennen was good at social media storytelling. She not only took followers through the steps of making challah, she introduced them to her two KitchenAid mixers, which together she refers to as Betty White. Betty is the red one. White is the white one. (Actress Betty White played Sue Ann Nivens on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” sitcom. White’s character hosted “The Happy Homemaker” program, in which she often baked.)
People saw Hennen’s posts and asked her to make them challah. She filled the orders, even though she then only considered making the bread a hobby. She usually charged $5 a loaf. (She now charges $15 to $22 a loaf, depending on the fillings.)
Parents at the school loved Hennen’s challah, but they had a persistent concern.
“The families were like, ‘This is way too cheap,” she said. “You should charge more.”
At that time, Hennen wasn’t really focused on making money from baking. Making challah was a spiritual and therapeutic experience. Like all of us, she was dealing with the uncertainty that permeated the early days of the pandemic. Hennen was also coming to grips with infertility issues.
She remembers how at first she was so intensely focused on trying to make near-perfect challah.
“Once my braids were all broken,” Hennen said. “And I was like, ‘Well, life kind of feels broken.’ Maybe it doesn’t need to be perfect. It’s just about making the challah to show my [students’] families that I’m here for them and that I’m here for myself and that I’m here for my own family.”
Friends kept pressing Meghann Hennen to start a business
It seemed as though, with each loaf out of the oven, her friends kept pressing her to start a business.
“I kept telling them, ‘I’m a teacher,’” Hennen said. “I’m a painter. I’m a dancer. Business is not usually something that I would venture into.”
Then one day in 2020, as Hennen was stopped at a traffic light on Shaker Square, she made a decision.
“I’m going to make this a business,” she said to herself.
And that’s how Hennen’s Side Hustle was born.
Challah at Meg focuses on flavors, from sweet to savory
Hennen’s artistic flair and creativity come through in her challah making. She has an undergraduate degree in painting and drawing and a graduate degree in painting and performance. (She also has a graduate degree in early childhood and special education.)
Hennen is always thinking of ways to translate flavors often associated with other foods, into her challah. This includes her Everything But the Bagel flavor, based on the popular bagel seasoning. There are also gourmet pairings, such as fig and goat cheese.
“I’m actually experimenting with a new flavor,” she said with excitement. “It’s going to be basil, garlic and Monterey Jack.”
Seeing Hennen make challah, one gets the sense of an artist at work. This is especially true of the flow and precision with which she braids the bread. This “artwork” is displayed on wire racks on an island in the kitchen. They are filled with different flavors of challah, each hugged in foil, for a weekly order. Some look too pretty to eat.
Customer Courtney Laves Mearini would advise against just looking and not partaking.
“It’s the chocolate one for me,” said the owner of Cleveland City Dance, where Hennen teaches as a Side Hustle. “I’m a chocolate addict, but even the basic challah is wonderful.”
She said Hennen’s reputation extends beyond Greater Cleveland. Mearini said she knows one of Hennen’s customers, who frequently travels to New Jersey. Once the customer took the plain challah to the people she was visiting.
“They were like, ‘You have to bring this all the time,” Mearini said, adding that the customer takes one or two loaves when she visits them every few weeks.
Carrie Kanfer first encountered Challah at Meg on Instagram and was intrigued by the bread. “A big believer in supporting small businesses,” she decided to give the product a try in 2021. She remains a customer. Cinnamon and Organic Brown Sugar and Everything But the Bagel are among her favorites. Kanfer said the loaves taste fresh, even after she has frozen them for three months.
“A lot of the bread you get in the grocery store, you can’t freeze for that long,” she said.
“Her challah is absolutely amazing. My family is now addicted to it.”
Savoring an unexpected entrepreneurial journey
Hennen kneads a ball of dough on the marble countertop in her kitchen. Betty shares the counter. It’s not hard to imagine that the red mixer is “watching” over her in approval.
Soon the baker begins the process of transforming the dough into loaves of challah. Hennen braids the strands and prays in Hebrew. She recites the Shehecheyanu, a blessing that expresses gratitude for new and unusual experiences. It is usually recited at the start of a holiday or on a special occasion.
This is the English translation: “Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this season.”
For Hennen, making challah can’t be separated from her faith. She said in Judaism making challah for women is a mitzvah, or a good deed that often brings people closer to others.
Mearini said Hennen has brought people closer together, especially through events, such as challah parties, where she teaches people how to bake the Jewish bread.
“It’s another way of building relationships,” Mearini said. “Getting to meet people who you might not otherwise meet. It makes everyone’s life so much richer. You find out about them, they find out about you, you create a whole new little universe.”
Four years after starting Challah at Meg, Hennen said she is still surprised that “it has grown to be something that I had never even imagined.” She isn’t referring to sales volume. With a full-time job, two other SIde Hustles and a passion for sailing, which she shares with her husband Patrick, Hennen is usually limited to a few nights of baking per week. (However, with the right investor, she would consider going full-time by opening a storefront.”)
Hennen measures growth by the experiences she has had as an entrepreneur. For example, she serendipitously developed a niche making challah Easter Bunnies at customers’ request. Also, she never expected her micro-bakery would have customers throughout the country. The bulk of her clientele is in Greater Cleveland.
“I’m amazed at how many people have had my challah,” Hennen said.
She said she has several high-profile customers, most of whom she’s never met. Staff usually accept the challah when Hennen delivers it.
“I’m known as the Challah Lady,” she said. “When I arrive, they say, ‘The Challah Lady is here.’”
