Our Story

Although Clairesquares officially opened for business in 2006, Claire has been making her delectable treats since she was a child growing up in County Cork, Ireland. By the age of 12, she was baking from her mother's recipe books and experimenting with fudge, butterscotch, toffee and caramel. She found that the best result was a mouthwatering combination of shortbread, caramel and chocolate.

A young entrepreneur, Claire tried her hand at selling the squares at school. It wasn't long before her classmates were addicted and she was selling out every week.

Years later and miles away in San Francisco, on a foggy and grey Sunday morning, she whipped up a batch of her buttery Irish treats for her friends. They had never tasted anything quite like them. Encouraged by her friends' enthusiasm—and constant harassment for just one more square—Claire decided to sell them here in America, and Clairesquares was born!

Our Culture

La Cocina
We are lucky to be a member of La Cocina which is a ground-breaking busi­ness incu­ba­tor designed to reduce the obsta­cles that often pre­vent entre­pre­neurs from cre­at­ing suc­cess­ful and sus­tain­able small busi­nesses.  By pro­vid­ing shared resources and an array of industry-specific ser­vices, La Cocina is helping ensure small busi­nesses like ours can succeed.
www.lacocinasf.org

Green Business
Though our products may be sinful, Clairesquares is dedicated to being a socially responsible business. We operate out of a certified Green Business commercial kitchen and are licensed as a green business with the City and County of San Francisco.

www.sfgreenbusiness.org

Apprenticeships
From time to time we accept college internships and school apprenticeships. In 2010, we participated in the Spark Program which empowers youth with real world opportunities. Spark is the only youth empowerment program in the country that addresses the dropout crisis by re-engaging at-risk students through hands-on, individualized apprenticeships.

www.sparkprogram.org

Food Banks
We are just as committed to our local community as we are to the environment; through our donation program, we have assisted several charitable nonprofit organizations and local food banks like Food Runners, who's mission is to help alleviate hunger in San Francisco. http://www.foodrunners.org/