You might know Jet City Espresso owner Jessica Glover from when you frequented her Tampa coffeehouses in the ’90s, or from when your parents made you tag along as a kid. It could be her Seattle-inspired coffee stylings that bring back fond memories, or maybe it’s the hugs.
Glover’s been in the food and drink industry for nearly 30 years, but her passion’s rooted in coffee and espresso businesses — they’re her favorite kinds of shops to run. Her two latest Jet Citys are in Hyde Park (at 318 S. Edison Ave.) and Seminole Heights (at 5803 N. Florida Ave.).
Made with honey, organic milk, homemade whipped cream, orange zest and nutmeg, the Cafe Borgia — an orange-infused latte — was developed by Glover more than 20 years ago. Many tell her she should copyright the recipe.
I drank a cup and chatted with her this past weekend at the Seminole Heights shop after closing time.
How did you come up with the Borgia?
Espresso is traditionally served with lemon zest or a wedge, and I wanted to come up with something that would have a little citrus, but I didn't quite want lemon — I wanted orange. In the '80s, everybody went through every flavor to make every different type of drink, and nobody had ever come up with this orange and honey that I developed. So I made it into a latte, and just loved the topping being nutmeg and orange. I could've done cinnamon; I could've done dark cocoa and orange, which is also delicious. But the nutmeg and orange was just really good, and so unique and different. I didn't have to be redundant of other flavored coffees that were out there.
What do customers say about it?
They love it. It just became and instant people-pleaser because it's really light on the honey and doesn't have as much sugar as the other syrups. You wouldn't think that an orange latte would taste good, but it does. We did a lemon one, too, and called it "Little Miss Sunshine." But the orange is definitely the keeper of them all. I'm so well known for it. People come in and call it crack — "I tasted the crack."
It's so good.
I know. I laugh so hard. I drink a double short almond milk latte or an Americano, and people are like, "You must drink Borgias all the time." Nope, but I do love 'em. I know they're good. If I make a mistake and drink it, I enjoy it very much.
What's up with you moving back and forth to Tampa?
I opened almost a couple dozen coffee shops in Seattle back in the '80s. We moved here from Seattle in the '90s, 1994 to 1999, and I really wanted to bring Seattle-style coffee to Tampa. I didn't see any places with that style of coffee or the experience that I had, so I opened the first Jet City at the end of '94, and then had two more open by '96 or '97. Then we moved away in 1999, and I ended up with a restaurant in Colorado for several years. We moved back here six years ago, and I opened up the fourth Jet City just because it was something that I loved to do. I thought it would be neat to bring it back to Tampa.
Is business at this Jet City different from Hyde Park?
It's a whole different clientele. The people up here in Seminole Heights are really down to earth and more natural. And they like quality stuff. They like unique places; they don't wanna see the chains. They don't wanna be where it's so popular to be seen. They would rather just be themselves and enjoy something that they can support in their own neighborhood. We have all these restaurants out here that are just so good, and adding Jet City to it was just a nice mix for the community up here. People are so thankful.
What's the Hyde Park shop like?
It's so unique and different from this, but it still has an amazing feel to it because it's basically a walk-up, to-go window, in my house. We have 103-year-old bungalow that's gorgeous — old, historical — in Hyde Park. You walk up my steps and around the separate entrance into a wrap-around porch, and that's where the shop is. It's so hidden that we call it a gem. When people say, "It was so hard to find you," I say, "Yeah, but you found me." If I rent a strip mall in the middle of this busy intersection, it wouldn't be special. I wouldn't be this hidden gem that you find. How many times have you been to a fantastic city and somebody said, "The most amazing Mediterranean-Italian restaurant is right down this little alley," and you gotta look for it?
Those are always the best places.
The very best. Just the feel of them. I mean, we have to face it — every moment that we spend of every day should be special. Life's too short. We need to go to unique things and have a beautiful day every day.
Is that why you're so close with your customers?
Yeah, very passionate. I just have a lot of compassion for people, families, kids. I just really enjoy people. People that like to come in and have coffee.
What's the secret to running a successful business, or coffee shop?
OK, experience — major part of it. Being a perfectionist at what you do and always making sure everybody follows your guidelines and your plans for the shop. And then just being polite and nice, and just smiling at people. Just, you know, making people feel better than when they walked in. And giving them a great product. It's hard to go to a restaurant and spend so much on a meal and go, "Wow. It took me a long time to make that money." So I want people to feel good about coming back and spending their money, and supporting our little community coffee shop.
Have you always been health conscious? Is that why the menu is the way it is?
Yep. I grew up in Alaska, and I'm the second of seven kids. We were raised on a farm. We had our own gardens, and we just ate really healthy. We made everything ourselves, so I love to cook things from scratch and have homemade versus anything at the grocery store 'cause it was a part of growing up. To me, it was just a better quality of life. I want people to enjoy that. I'm very family focused.
So your kids are going to take over the biz one day.
Well, my son Jack works here. Both the boys work at the shops. My other son, even though he works at the shop, he knows how to do everything. He still has a couple other jobs that he likes to do, but they both have been immersed in the coffee ever since they were little. I would be more than thrilled to see one or both of 'em take over my shops. Or open somewhere else. We talked about Hawaii; we talked about the Keys. I wanna go somewhere where I can have a laid-back, wonderful life.
Anything new coming up for Jet City?
We have a beer and wine license coming. We're gonna extend our hours. We have an open mic starting the first Friday of every month. We already have a traditional Irish session the second Sunday of every month, which we stay open for from 4 to 8 p.m. We'll work on our hours when we get the beer and wine license, but we'll extend every day 'til probably 8. And then on the weekend — Thursday, Friday, Saturday — we'll open 'til 9 or 10. We're super close to getting our beer and wine license. Actually, everything is done for it except for one parking spot. We're trying to secure one parking spot, but I already talked to my friend, who's an attorney, and said go ahead and move for us to have it waived, which means now we have to go into a hearing with city council. Before we were able to just do it with construction services as long as we could secure another parking spot, but we just can't get it in this area. Nobody can. Even though we have all these spots around us, they won't count them. Legally, we just have to go through what they require for that.
This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2014.