DOLCE Café + Marketplace brings an affordable, healthy, customer-friendly local marketplace right to the heart of downtown, located inside Park Tower at 400 N. Tampa St., Suite 104 Tampa, FL 33602.
Featuring a bakery and selling coffee, other beverages, snacks, gelato, ice cream, tobacco, beer, wine, and more, DOLCE’s location gives a convenient option for surrounding businesses and hotels. This specific location is surrounded by four different office buildings.
“I’ve lived in downtown for 12 years now and found that I don’t see many convenience stores around this area,” says Owner Adrian Nagy. “I wanted to have the concept of a small oasis downtown with a clean and inviting ambiance, an upscale market.” Nagy was made aware that this location had been vacant for some time and decided to move forward with her business. A grand opening took place on June 3.
As a former professional consultant in developing supermarkets, now on the path to retirement, Nagy has used her work experience to open three convenience stores, her niche being in office buildings and hotels. She’s getting two more locations ready to open in the next 60 days, one in the Westshore business district and the other in St. Petersburg.
Nagy was able to open this marketplace through her savings she’s built up over the years as well as proceeds from her other stores. She shares that the ballpark range for starting this type of business is around $100,000-$120,000.
“Depending on the location, tenants and characteristics in the area, I tailor and modify what we provide in products and services [at that specific marketplace],” Nagy says. DOLCE is unique in that it offers a bakery and focuses more on workers who may suffer from celiac disease, offering a gluten free section, and plant-based ice-cream.
“People motivate me and encourage me when I’m sometimes not feeling good about it. Interacting with my customers on a daily basis helps me,” Nagy says. “I’m not an absentee or hands-off owner, I come to the store at 6 o’clock wearing an apron to mop the floors and clean the windows.”
Something just as important to her as providing for residents is giving back to the community. Every Sunday they volunteer at the hospital, they also donate food they have to homeless shelters, and every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve, they provide about 30-35 turkeys to homeless shelters.
As she expands her work in Tampa, she’d like to give thanks to all her amazing staff members, as well as Feldman Equities, who own these buildings and have believed in her confidence, providing her the opportunity to serve their clients, and neighbors in downtown.
For more information: Visit the Dolce Facebook page and the Park Tower website.
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