Building a Food Business, One Experience at a Time

Saji George, owner of Mesa Restaurant in Jacksonville with her son Brandon.

Those who pursue a career in the food industry don’t always follow a straight path. In fact, many meander before arriving at their “dream” job or business. That wandering may allow time for clarity on purpose and vision. Life experiences can add to our skill sets and help us put aside pursuits that don’t align with what we hope to create. We caught up with some local entrepreneurs who pursued a goal to build a business centered around food, evolving the model in their own time and fashion based on their personal experiences.

Saji George, Owner, Mesa Restaurant

I don’t have any formal training or schooling specific to the restaurant industry, but it was always a dream to own a restaurant. I am a home chef who decided to open a restaurant and gradually figured out the business side of things. We have a great team now, so I can focus on what I love, which is connecting with guests and providing a unique experience for everyone who comes to Mesa.

I am involved in the day-to-day operations of the restaurant. That includes ordering and obtaining specialty food items, organizing our staff and ensuring a high standard of service for our guests. With our seasonal menu, I am heavily involved in the recipe development. My favorite role is enhancing the guest experience as I aim to connect with each person who dines at Mesa.

Although my undergraduate study was in clinical nutrition and I worked as a clinical registered dietician, I've worn several different hats. My son Brandon works with me and he also enjoys cooking and coming up with new menu ideas; he is just as passionate and committed to making Mesa a success story.

The main lesson that I learned is that it's never too late to pursue your dream. When people close doors on you, God always opens a window for you and it's up to you to put all your effort and energy into making that happen. We learned that we must remain humble, respectful and grateful not only for our customers but our staff who show up every day to do their very best with their positive attitude.

Krystal and Davey Misola, owners of Kravey Gardens , with their children.

Jess Diebel and Tucker Juan, Owners, Makenu Chocolate

Paul Brock, Owner-operator, The Feed Mill

Davey and Krystal Misola, Owners, Kravey Gardens (above left)

Our urban farm is in the Riverside neighborhood of Jacksonville. Our days are filled with tasks like seeding, growing, transplanting and harvesting a range of crops, including herbs, leafy greens, fruits, root vegetables and microgreens. We connect with our local community through CSA subscriptions, farmers' markets, grocery stores and restaurants. This year, we’re also diving into education by conducting workshops for both adults and kids, showing them how to grow their own food and understand the journey from farm to fork. It’s a busy life, but we love every moment!

Our journey into urban farming began back in 2016 when life took an unexpected turn. At that time, Krystal and I were immersed in our healthcare careers, and with our first son on the way, we began to reconsider our lifestyle choices. During one of my long-distance training runs — where I often found clarity and reflection — I felt God give me a powerful nudge to embrace healthier living. We were middle-aged parents and we realized that making better health choices was essential for our family’s future. It became clear to us that we weren’t just meant to eat healthier, but also to learn the art of growing our own food. Fast forward to 2025, and we’re now raising three little ones while still committed to cultivating nutritious food for our family and our community!

Now in our sixth year at Kravey Gardens, our journey has been nothing short of transformative. We’ve evolved from wide-eyed novices to confident urban farmers and market gardeners, and we’re blessed to have a dedicated and faithful team who shares our passion for growing healthy food for our community. Each year, we find ourselves busier than the last, and our roles have shifted more towards the entrepreneurial side of farming. We’ve learned so much along the way, with plenty of lessons from both our successes and our trials. It’s been a wild ride, and we wouldn’t trade it for anything!

Jess Diebel and Tucker Juan, Owners, Makenu Chocolate (above center)

Diebel: My path to Makenu was not direct, nor intentionally dreamed of, until it was already much in progress. My background rests in forensic psychology and I lived in Colorado for 10 years. I started to dream of a break from the field and developed a business plan with a fellow therapist to open a chocolate and wine shop. In 2014 I took a leave of absence from my career and moved back home to Jacksonville Beach. I was introduced to Bold Bean Coffee Roasters and worked at their beach shop. Through my time at Bold Bean, while learning the science and art of coffee service, I reconsidered my chocolate ideas from Colorado and started offering my truffles, bark and dipped fruits through the retail shops. Deep Dive Chocolates was born!

While refining these treats, I learned of the many parallels in cacao and coffee. Although my thoughts on importing cacao with coffee didn’t pan out, I was introduced to my business partner, Tucker Juan, who was also discussing chocolate ideas with fellow Bold Bean friends. Over the years of cacao discussions, chocolate conferences and researching the bean to bar business model, Tucker and I decided it was worth a shot. My lack of professional food training was offset by much trial and error, seeking out professional consultations from other bean to bar makers and research.

I received a piece of advice just as the business was starting: The role of a business owner is twofold, to be the problem solver and to not worry about being right, but to encourage the best decisions. These two statements have been bumper lanes for me as I’ve grown in my communication, goal setting and consideration of directions for the company. The opportunity, the fortune, to be able to offer the “corner shop” in a community I grew up in is something I never take for granted. I think this is always the awareness I try to hold: that the life connection and opportunity for kindness and patience is never wasted. No matter how long or short Makenu Chocolate exists, I want to make sure it offers this depth of experience to all who enter.

Juan: At Makenu, I wear many hats. One of my key roles is sourcing cacao beans, which involves traveling to different origins, meeting farmers, observing how the beans are grown and understanding their fermentation processes. This hands-on approach helps us build relationships with farmers and ensure that the cacao we source meets our quality and ethical standards.

I’ve always had an appreciation for high-quality food, something my parents instilled in me early on. I also wanted to start my own business, inspired by my grandfather and my father. I founded Topsy Toffee in 2014, using my mom’s toffee recipe. What started as a small toffee company has since become an integral part of Makenu’s product lineup.

I didn’t go to culinary school; everything I know about toffee and chocolate has been self-taught through books, conversations with chefs or people in the industry and watching videos. By 2018, I was looking to diversify my product lineup. Since toffee is half chocolate, I started wondering how chocolate itself is made. When I met Jess, we started talking about bean-to-bar chocolate. We noticed there was a void in the Jacksonville market, so we decided to partner and launch Makenu Chocolate, which officially opened in 2020.

We opened Makenu Chocolate in 2020, just as the COVID pandemic began, which forced us to completely rethink our original business plan. Fortunately, the Atlantic Beach community embraced us, helping us navigate that uncertain time. Since then, Makenu has continued to evolve. Now, we’re facing new challenges, like rising cacao prices, inflation and a changing labor market. The key to survival is how you respond to those changes. Having a business partner has been transformative and I couldn’t have grown past my early business ventures or built Makenu without Jess. I’m truly grateful for her as both a person and a business partner.

Paul Brock, Owner-operator, The Feed Mill (above right)

My wife Jackee and I are the owner operators of The Feed Mill in St. Johns County. Along with the mill and feed store selling premium horse hay and feed, we carry produce, beef and pork from the farm. We have expanded the store to offer dairy, other groceries, homemade pizza, farmers’ markets and farm-to-table dinners.

I have many different tasks in this role which is a combination of my interests in farming and cooking. I’m a feed maker which involves operating the mill using all organic grains from Florida and Kentucky. I make wood-fired pizzas daily topped with vegetables from local farms, Jackee and I also host seasonal four-course farmer table dinners featuring ingredients from our farm and other local farms for 30 to 40 people. As farmers, we take care of chickens, cows, pigs, goats, sheep and occasionally ducks, turkeys and rabbits. Each year we try to do more gardening than the last.

When I was 16, I started working at Hurricane Patty’s in St. Augustine. I immediately fell in love with the industry. At the time I was going to culinary vocational school, but I didn’t stay long. I have changed jobs a lot and have worked in every position in a variety of restaurants. I had not taken the restaurant industry seriously as a career but deep down, I always wanted to own my own business and farms. Jackee and I started dating over 10 years ago and our first apartment was on a horse farm. At that time I started working at the Floridian, which elevated my cooking skills significantly and was an amazing learning experience.

By this time our goal was defined. We wanted to have a farm restaurant that could serve extraordinary food. We didn’t know how, but we knew we would achieve our goal. Jackee started working at the mill four years ago, and soon after I started working for the company. A year later we ended up with the mill.

Serving pizzas on the farm came from our mutual love of pizza and we thought using this dish would be a great platform to try different farm ingredients. The farm dinners started as donation-based open invitations on social media. The response was so large we had to turn people away! The menus are farm inspired and we serve on picnic tables with fine china.

Opening this business was definitely more challenging than I anticipated; it has been an all-consuming endeavor. This process has helped us develop more grit, determination and mental toughness than I ever thought it would take to bring this dream into reality.