Joe and Son’s Olive Oils comes to fruition with help of Florida SBDC at USF
In the summer of 2011, Andrea Messina Gebbia had an idea for a retail business and a partial business plan. All she needed was some direction to get her started. That’s when she reached out to the Florida SBDC at USF.
“My family has been in the grocery business here in Tampa since the 1930s, so I always just sort of had this passion for food and cooking but never really wanted to go to culinary school,” Gebbia said.
Gebbia’s great-grandfather, Giuseppe (Joe) Favata, left Sicily and eventually established Joe and Sons Grocery in historic Ybor City, in 1938.
“He, like me, was just trying to pursue his American dream,” she said. “This was my way of paying tribute to the family store.” (more…)