Growing up in Brazil, Martha Rabello, who now lives in Fanwood with her husband and three young children, loved the coffee and sweets that her grandmother served every day at
After settling in the United States in 2005, Rabello attended the pastry program at Manhattan’s Institute for Culinary Education, graduating in 2009. She subsequently developed two coffee hour– inspired cookie flavors, one featuring corn flour and fennel seed and the other featuring coffee and dark chocolate. She set about securing commercial kitchen space to produce the treats for sale online and at local cafes under the name Cherryspoon. Now, due to New Jersey regulations that forbid her to work in her more affordable home kitchen, she finds herself out of business. Today Rabello and others are fighting a long legal battle with the state, one that now includes representation by the Institute for Justice, based in Arlington, VA, a nonprofit, libertarian, public-interest law firm