ZAZA Espresso Gelato Bar
Description
Carmine Costantino had a vision to start a café to help a young Raffaele Bettalico establish himself in Toronto, after arriving from Southern Italy.
Starting as a small café in the west end, with his wife Nancy, ZAZA quickly became known as the place for a truly authentic Italian cafe experience. Carmine's and Nancy's passion for coffee and helping others, along with their entrepreneurial mindset would see their vision expand from their beginning on Scarlett Avenue to Yorkville, opening a café where the Gelato Shop (a division of ZAZA) operates today.
The Costantinos partnered with Raffaele in 2006 to open COCO Espresso Bar in Yorkville, where Carmine still remains a partner today.
In 2018 Carmine and Nancy began plans to further expand ZAZA. A few months later a tragic accident took Nancy's life. Devastated by the loss of the love of his life, and mother of his daughters, Bianca and Olivia - he put all future plans for ZAZA on hold; and the locations Nancy had operated became too painful to enter, so he found himself closing the locations.
Costantino took the next year to spend time with his daughters and contemplate the future and ZAZA.