We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jess Sabine. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jess below.

Alright, Jess thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business

The Rose Room Cafe was born from my love of being a barista, coupled with my desire to open a community focused third-place for people from all walks of life to feel welcome. My husband and I were seeking space to open our location in Maine when we found out we would be having our first child. After that we ended up moving back to my hometown in Massachusetts, where we stumbled upon our first location in the small mill town of Webster. Over 5 years we built up our community and customer base. The space of our dreams had finally come to life.

I am the kind of person who is always looking for new opportunity and eager to try different ideas to see what will fit for me and my business. My creative mind gets lost in the possibilities. I could spend hours playing “what if?”. I am always exploring other cafes and restaurants to gather new inspiration.

In May of 2023 I was on a business trip to NYC and took the train into Providence to meet my brother for dinner. Sitting on the patio of the restaurant, we began to discuss the local coffee shop, which was only 2 doors down the street. Naturally I went over the peek in the window. It looked adorable and I put it on my bucket list of places to visit next time I was in the area.

I kid you not, the next day a restauranteur from Providence visited The Rose Room in Webster and we struck up a conversation. We spoke about business and growth, opportunity and vision. He let me know that he knew of a cafe in Providence that was for sale. And wouldn’t you know, it was that exact location I had put on my bucket list the night before!

This began a 7 month journey in exploring our options in this location in Providence and signing a lease to begin renovation January 2024.

We officially opened our doors in our second location on March 1 and in just 2 weeks it’s been a wild success.

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.

I started working in coffee in college and fell in love with the community aspect of the job. Not only was I making craft beverages, but I was connecting with people in micro moments of their day and getting to know them over time. Bringing people together was (as still is) one of the best parts of the job for me. After I left college in Philadelphia I moved from city to city seeking out cafe jobs in every place I went. I spent a few summers on Nantucket at different cafes there, I lived in Colorado for 6 years and managed a cafe kitchen, I spent time in Portland, Maine and received amazing coffee training that brought my skills to a new level. I held 7 different cafe jobs over my 15 years in the industry before opening my own location.

My husband and I both had our individual dreams of opening our own businesses one day and when we fell in love everything simultaneously started to fall into place. After looking in Maine for our location we moved back to Webster, MA and the perfect place fell into our laps.

The Rose Room is a space where coffee blooms and conversations blossom. We champion locally sourced ingredients, connecting our guests to the source of their food. The majority of our ingredients are made in house, including our breads, syrups, sauces, sweets, and even our oat milk. For 5 years we have carved a way for ourselves in Webster, and just opened our second location in Providence, RI this month!!!

It’s so special for me to be able to share what I love with my community, offering them delicious and thoughtful meals alongside specialty drinks. Our team has grown from just 3 family members to 14 amazing folks who help bring the vision to life! It’s been a dream come true. Literally.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Our business was a bootstrap endeavor in every sense of the word. My husband and I scraped together our savings, started a go-fund-me, and went all with just 30k. My parents offered us a loan to buy some of our initial equipment and donated their time to helping us renovate our space. Honestly, everyone should have a parent who does construction because it saved us a boatload of money.

We knew we wanted to serve locally sourced foods, but we also did not have the funding for a hood system. I had worked in enough small cafes that I brought my ideas to the table of how to create a variety of meal options on a budget. We invested in a small electric pizza oven and a small convection oven and did all of our cooking and baking from them for the first 1-2 years. Many people in the industry have seen our set up and have said “you do all this out of there?” and yes, we do. I don’t believe in putting limits on the possibilities, we just have to get a little creative sometimes.

Our payroll/point of sale system offered us many loans over the years and we took them willingly, using the funding to invest in new equipment, more staffing, and a little cushion in the bank during slow times. We also were ok with not getting paid for months during the start up process. We were all in, and there was no going back.

Have you ever had to pivot?

We are actually in a huge pivot moment right now, trying to decide how to move forward with our businesses. My husband had moved on to open a bar and beer garden in 2021 and with the addition of our new Rose Room in Providence we are wondering what our next move is. Webster is not a bustling town and it’s taken years for us to even come close to our revenue goals for The Rose Room here. Do we pivot or do we stay the course? Do we pair down the menu to cut staffing costs or do we extend the hours to take advantage of our liquor license?

Making changes to the business in such a drastic way can be challenging. You can do all the projections you want but nothing is guaranteed. It’s a calculated risk and you have to be ok with. What works for me is to do a little research, talk though my options, and ultimately follow my gut.

Contact Info:

• Website: Theroseroomcafe.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/theroseroomcafe
• Facebook: Facebook.com/theroseroomcafe

Image Credits
Hanna Kunkel Kate Cornoyer