For my final blog post, I’d love to talk about a personally experienced entrepreneurial venture. I worked for six months at a beautiful little cafe called Brazilian Table. This place and the family that began it is very close to my heart. Its story is unique and the epitome of bring people together.

Sylvia Boff was a well-established pianist in Brazil with a love for baking and cooking. She raised two daughters and a son, then once they were grown up, she moved to America to start selling her delicious meals and desserts. The two daughters traveled with her; Mariana got a business degree at Messiah University and Juliana learned English and business at a local community college while running the cafe. Starting up was a process that I was lucky enough to be a part of. I was hired about six months after opening, but so much progress still needed to be done. The stories I could tell of processes trial and error, rearrangement, establishments of new equipment, and the Brazilian culture and language are endless. I was paid minimally but gained ineffable riches in my character development and work ethic and business skills. The real life entrepreneurship I witnessed was chaotic.

Success became possible, not because of perfection, but because of the wonderful environment Sylvia created. She has an extremely welcoming presence, a desire to pour out onto every person she comes into contact with, and an extreme work ethic. Most nights, she’d stay up cooking until about 4 am and then come into the cafe later in the day to restock. The support she gained quickly from the community truly made the entire thing possible. Sylvia is impossible to dislike.

There are so many lessons I could discuss that I gained at my time at Brazilian Table, but a few stand out. One of these is about spirit. People are drawn to passion, personality, and story. Sylvia trained me in customer service to meet guests where they were by welcoming them exuberantly, explaining products, and providing a rich experience that was way more than the food I was serving. I became quickly acclimated to meeting strangers whether they were American and familiar or Brazilian and spoke a language I barely knew. I learned the joy in hard work and how to laugh through inevitable mistakes. I gave my all in my different areas of talent and passion, too. Sylvia let me design all the chalkboards and run the social media. These were priceless opportunities that I would encourage everyone to search for.

I will always look back on my time working at Brazilian Table with so much thanksgiving.

https://braziliantablelititz.com/