The Michigan Meatball Company LLC was founded by Gloria & Michael Brooks during the pandemic of 2020. Gloria has always been the ‘cook’ of the family, learning Italian recipes from her maternal grandmother. Her specialty has been her sauce and meatballs, and she was encouraged for years by family and friends to sell them. After her twenty-year career as a non-profit hospice executive ended in September 2019, she and husband Michael decided to relocate to their vacation home on Jose Lake in South Branch, MI in May, 2020.
The relocation gave her the idea to test the market in South Branch and Jose Lake to see if the community would be interested in her meatballs. Michael had proposed the idea of “Meatballs on a Stick”, three of Gloria’s meatballs cooked in her tomato sauce and served on a skewer similar to a shish kebob.
After a sell-out test run in early August 2020 during the Jose Lake Community Yard Sale, Gloria decided to move forward with the opportunity for The Michigan Meatball Company LLC during Labor Day weekend 2020. The rest is history!