We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Niky & Sophia Mosconi. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Niky & Sophia below.
Niky & Sophia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
It all started when Niky a boxer from Italy came to NY on a Visa to train at the world famous Gleason’s Gym and Sophia a professional make up artist to NY’s elite was traveling to NY from Texas & met at 21 years old in New York City. They met at a pizzeria near the Brooklyn Bridge fell in love instantly and quickly moved forward to get married and start a life together.
They began their journey exploring the cities best restaurants, farmers markets and specialty stores. It’s the only way they cooked with local and imported ingredients from around the world and always made friends and family ask when our next gathering would be. They both have an extensive family history with food and both love to cook.
They started cooking for friends and family and hosted dinner parties at their home for holidays and gatherings. That’s when the guests started asking if they ever thought to open a restaurant given the amazing dishes and presentations served at the parties.
They started looking for a place to open a restaurant in NYC and upstate New York, then realized the commitment it would require. It would mean they’d have to travel less and that was not an option since they few regularly to Italy often to visit family, relax and discover Europe.
In 2017 tired of the city life they moved to Tampa as it was a vibrant up and coming city. So, they decided to open Williamsburg Cucina Caffe’ e Bottega with the goal to offer the locals a concept new to the area. That included High quality farm to table ingredients. Italian Coffee’s and Imported handcrafted groceries. Hence the name Cucina which is Italian for kitchen, caffe standing coffee and Bottega meaning Specialty grocery store which is coming soon.
They choose a food truck because it would allow them more flexibility to travel to Italy and be able to offer their creations to a wider area as well as travel and discover new places.
The menu was a fine dining experience meeting the street food style, with ingredients that locals had never tasted or seen before. That being said. They remember the time when people used to think their Imported Burrata was an egg. lol.
They use a Variety of imported uncured cold cuts and cheeses like wild board salami and burrata, rustic crusty bread, truffles, saffron and so forth all of which they get from private local artisans in our home town in Emilia Romagna Italy.
It was really challenging convincing people that a food truck could be elevated to this kind of concept and quality but it was exciting being able to see the reactions in their face and the excitement when they had their first bite.
Through all the hard work and obstacles Williamsburg Cucina has now become Tampa’s #1 Food Truck by Tampa Bay Times, Best Eatery without a Store front for the 2nd year in a row by Tampa Bay Magazines and won 7 awards in 2022 alone. For those reading this never give up no matter how challenging it gets. believe in your dream, follow through and you will succeed!
Niky & Sophia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
They are well traveled and have been treating themselves to the finest things through the years. Niky was born and raised in Northern Italy, his grandparents owned and operated one of the most popular Bottega in Rimini for 40 years therefore he is not stranger to quality, everything in their shop was locally sourced and carefully selected and that’s what they recreated with Williamsburg Cucina. After moving to NYC he managed fine Italian restaurants for 10+ years before opening Williamsburg Cucina.
Sophia always loved Italian food, little did she know back then she was gonna end up married to an Italian! Born in Dallas TX and raised in San Antonio she had an intensive background in Make up and skin care, after moving to NYC she became a renowned professional make up artist for New York ellites, working in historical buildings like Bergdorf Goodman & Flat Iron, leading weddings in venues like the Plaza Hotel & Central Park and servicing many tv and fashion shows including NYC fashion week, E news, and Published in many magazines.
All these factors have been united together by the owners to offer a one of a kind concept that include great quality, attention to detail, presentation and top quality service.
From the vintage, small, stripped down to bare metal bread van with Bansky vinyls and the Mona Lisa painted in the back by Vitale Bros. of St.Pete to the colorful fresh flower arrangements and holiday decorations you can rest assure that Williamsburg Cucina is always making an impression.
They wanna give their customers a feel of their life and the way they interpret it. Taking them to a journey of discovering the world through beauty and good food, bringing a nostalgic experience from that old world that is hard to come across these days. At Williamsburg Cucina you will become a kid again, pink Lavender lemonade, Truffle Mac and cheese and Nutella Croissant are just few of the items you will comeback for over and over again… and that’s what is really all about bringing that happiness and smile that can change your day and if spread can change the world!
Costumers and followers become family as Williamsburg Cucina has created a common ground where everybody comes together for great food and drinks and build community. Often costumers waiting for food start chatting outside the truck and become friends, or if the truck breaks down on the road costumers stop and help. It’s just something great!
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
One of the toughest moments was definitely when covid hit. All our events where cancelled and the the future became so uncertain. For a business that relies on daily activity to stay healthy it was extremely hard to come out with solutions as service with the truck was not an option.
As a few days went by, trying to come out with a solution we started receiving emails from costumers that were really craving our food and were willing to come together to help. We then created a order ahead link divided geographically for costumers to order for a preselected day and place and went ahead and drop off large orders.
It became quickly very popular and it allowed us to operate through the toughest time. Can never forget driving down Dale Mabry at 5pm going to deliver large orders and in a 30 minute drive only coming across one car in the street.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Owner Sophia takes care of the social media. It came easy to her as in the fashion/make up industry she was always involved with it. The best way to build an audience is staying true to yourself and your concept, posting what you like and what you want to express and not what would give you more likes. Williamsburg Cucina is a lifestyle and we document it trough our media outlet, we try to post our creations, our gateways and document our culture through the things that we enjoy in our daily life as well as offerings for our costumers.
We are not big fans of posting every single moment of your life, it’s all about balance and we want to maintain ours, so we try to give content that are fun and exciting, at times when you can learn something new or just crack a laugh, without becoming repetitive or obnoxious.
The secret is always to be yourself in life as in business or on social media and everything will always flow.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.williamsburgcucina.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/williamsburgcucina/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/williamsburgcucinabk
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClK5jY9R2rDT_LsogBdsS6A
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/williamsburg-cucina-caffe-e-bottega-tampa-5
- Other: https://williamsburgcucina.com/awards-press
Image Credits
Stuff To do UNATION