Nora Egger is chasing the American dream and bottling it into a tangible reality. She's energetic and industrious, worldly and passionate, perceptive and savvy, and on the verge of taking a small business and entrepreneurial spirit to levels she couldn't have imagined only two years ago. Egger is the founder of The Lounging Gourmet, a line of handcrafted elixirs that embody the long road she's traveled – and where the future is leading her.
When Egger first arrived in Shaker Heights, it was her first time in the United States. She was 8 years old, a native of Vienna, Austria, the only child of an Austrian father and Hungarian mother, and just learning English. She had traveled with her mother, who came for a childhood sweetheart. "He had escaped communism, and she couldn't go with him then. She tried for three years, so she ended up marrying the man who became my father.
"Many years later, [her sweetheart] got divorced… tracked down my mother through her parents, and we came to visit him, and that was the end," says Egger. "Unfortunately, he did pass away when I was 17 of cancer, but they were together for nine beautiful years." Egger attended Shaker Heights High School, majored in international relations/political science at Cleveland State University and earned her MBA from Case Western Reserve University. She worked as a consultant, then as a senior recruitment manager in Budapest, Hungary, for nearly seven years. She quit her job on March 10, 2008.
"I wanted to travel, so I went to Vienna for three months to hang out over the summer, and traveled all over Europe with family and friends," says Egger, who has spent more than two decades of her 34 years living and traveling in Europe. By summer's end, she had job offers in Vienna and Zurich, one in real estate, one in executive search. "They [had] showed me where I would sit, who my colleagues were; I had coffee with everybody at both companies, and I was deciding which job to take," says Egger. "Then the recession came… like many companies, London head offices called for headcount freezes, so I decided to come back to Cleveland, wind down and figure out what I was going to do."
Amid all the confusion and uncertainty, she found herself trying to relax – with a bottle of sparkling wine. The shared pours with her mother and stepfather elicited memories of a rose and Champagne cocktail she'd had in Vienna. She wanted to share that experience with her parents, but a comparable rose blend was not to be found in Northeast Ohio's market. With a background in marketing, she started researching flowers, cocktail mixes, syrups. "I didn't really find anything that I liked, that was of quality, that wasn't all sugar, so I started making something in my kitchen – with a rose, initially," says Egger.
Nearly three years ago, the idea started taking shape in Egger's Shaker Heights kitchen, as she worked for six months to acquire the necessary regulations and approvals to launch The Lounging Gourmet. The small operation then grew to occupy a space at an agricultural incubator in Bowling Green, and Egger now subleases from Olympia Candy in Strongsville, sharing the family-run business' warehouse and production facilities. "Bob McGrath is the owner of Olympia Candy, and his son works there, and it's the whole family," says Egger. "It's a place where literally grandparents come with their grandkids. Family's my weak point – and that totally brings a tear to my eye. It's very rare these days to see these small, old diners where families come together to eat ice cream."
Her inspirations are as far flung as her travels, though as near and dear as family. Her peregrinations exposed her to exotic, new flavor combinations and profiles that intrigued and delighted. "In Armenia, they drink tarragon soda," says Egger, relating a trip to the Caucasus. "It's toxic, neon-green looking, but it's amazing. It's their Coca-Cola."
She's physically picked ideas from the trees to flavor her imagination – and elixirs.
