We recently connected with Jessalyn Italiano and have shared our conversation below.

Jessalyn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

The opportunity of ownership didn’t present itself to me until I had already been working for Caffe Boa for about 4 years as a server/manager. The founder of Caffe Boa told me he wanted to retire and thus the opportunity for ownership was born.

During this time in my life, I was working at a Physical Therapy clinic full-time during the days, applying to PT graduate school, and going straight to my shifts at Boa by night.

The hard work and loyalty of dedicating myself wasn’t foreign to me – I know what makes me happy and I know when I need a change.

This particular moment of opportunity was, deep down, a no brainer for me.

Every awakened moment for the next month was spent thinking of myself in these new, possible shoes and playing through any possible issue or blockade I may come across. I also pondered with the real idea of missing this opportunity and what that would feel like to me long-term. I foresaw sadness and regret. Not just for me, but for a 24 year old business (at the time) that would likely fall into the hands of someone else who didn’t understand the heart and soul of what Caffe Boa stands for and represents.

Happy to say that after one month, I agreed to become owner and buy the restaurant over a short period of time, but under the condition that I get to choose a business partner to help me co-own.

I sought out my best friend of whom I met our first week being hired at Caffe Boa, and proposed the idea to him.

Our work ethics, personal morals, and loyalty align very well and I already knew he shared the same love for Boa as I did, after all these years.

Happily, we marked May 1st, 2018 as “Ownership Day” and officially bought Caffe Boa over the course of 3 years, with complete ownership happening May 1st, 2021.

We have grown and learned so much along the way, feeling confident in our 15+ years (each!) of our restaurant experience, to help us navigate the ever cycling changes we face as owners.

We couldn’t be more proud and honored to carry on a historic legacy here in Tempe, as well as utilize what we feel will nurture Boa, its staff, guests, and the community.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Hi! My name is Jessalyn! Jess or Jessie for short; I’m pretty easygoing for someone with New York roots. My family and I moved to Arizona when I was pretty young, but I was lucky enough to have been able to visit my cousins and family on the east coast most summers. I grew up with a heavy Italian influence from my family and absolutely love the culture.

I remember eagerly hunting for my first job in high school around age 15/16- wanting the feeling of independence as to make my own money for fun activities with my friends on the weekends.
I landed a hostessing position at an Italian restaurant where I stayed for 4 years.

As much as I wanted to go back to the east coast for University, I didn’t know what I wanted to study just yet, so I opted to stay local and attended ASU. I landed a job at a sushi bar in Tempe while I made my way through 5 years of school. I continued my passion for hospitality through a career in Physical Therapy. I studied courses in Exercise and Wellness, a few levels of Human Anatomy and Physiology, and even Human Nutrition. I loved it!

Once I graduated from ASU, I became full-time at a Physical Therapy clinic with a team I fell in love with. To help off-set the expense of living, I moved over from the Sushi bar I worked at and found Caffe Boa on Mill Avenue in Downtown Tempe. I worked full time at the clinic during the days, and full time at Boa by night. I ran this dedication for about 3 years, truly loving what I did at both jobs.

The year the opportunity for ownership at Boa presented itself, I was also looking into buying my first house. It was through my house-buying experience that I was able to learn a lot more about the different cities around the valley, and therefore learn about our different communities. I felt a huge change in the way I understood our cities and towns and became an advocate for learning a new city and what it has to offer.

Caffe Boa shares this same love for community since it would founded in 1994, and I love making sure that it remains a core quality of our business to this day. So many beautiful and amazing local business surround us everywhere we go and I feel this is what makes an area thrive!

At Caffe Boa, we have always sought out local purveyors when it comes to our products and services. If we don’t make it homemade or by hand in-House, we want to support someone else who does. This is even true of our products and services that may be local, but to another city outside of Arizona. From our candles, to our artwork and our flowers… everything we bring to be apart of Boa, we try to support others in the process.

By helping boost a local economy, we are helping give back to that local community which then can help thrive on goods and services that help keep people in business, help ensure quality products, as well as originality.

I have met so many local people that populate our towns since moving into this position and I feel a stronger sense of community for it. Caffe Boa strives to bring the best all-natural (no added chemicals or sulfurs) wines, homemade or organic foods, and locally crafted beers and cocktails to our city and will continue with these roots for many years to come.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

My business partner Zachary started working at Caffe Boa in the same month I was hired. It was July 2014, hot as ever, and we both were so glad to have found Boa when we did. Being the “off-season” for the restaurant industry in Arizona, we had lots of time to learn and train to become the servers and bartenders we were hired on to be.

I remember us studying together and sharing notes of all the wines and dishes we needed to remember. His happy, confident, silly personality clicked with me perfectly.

We became fast friends and over time, a pretty consistent part of each other’s lives. Something I don’t take for granted.

It was a no-brainer for me when I knew I wanted a business partner and who I would pick. We share very like-minded ideas and a passion for Boa and our community. We challenge each other enough to think on our toes and push our thoughts to the edges of our comfortability.

Neither of us have a background in business, but our hunger to learn hasn’t stopped us from seeking any knowledge to help keep our business strong.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Zac and I are very fortunate to have strong, supportive parents that didn’t judge us for our decision to buyout a restaurant when we told them.

We were given a very short time initially to gather together a minimum percentage of money to being the funding process of ownership. With our parents help and a bit of our own savings, we were able to put down our initial capital on ownership day.

Over the next 3 years, Zac and I worked day in and day out, sometimes 7 days a week to make sure we had the funds to continue ownership each year.

Now, our parents are proudly re-paid and we couldn’t be more grateful for their trust.

It is a lot of work, but you know what they say, “when you truly are doing what you love, it doesn’t always feel like work.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cafeboa.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caffeboaonmill/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caffeboaonmill/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/caffe-boa-tempe

Image Credits
Personal photo: Zachary Powell and Jessalyn Italiano