Today we’d like to introduce you to Tessa Levy.
Hi Tessa, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My husband and I share a love and passion for food true to our hometown roots—my husband being born in Israel to a Yemenite mom and Syrian father, and myself, a California girl raised in a French Moroccan home. We both have been working in the historic Seybold building in downtown Miami for many years, where we struggled to order food that we loved and trusted the integrity of the ingredients being used. When a space opened up inside the Seybold building adjacent to our store, we both knew this was an incredible opportunity for us to pursue our passion and to build the restaurant of our dreams.
And so, the seed of Motek (Hebrew for ‘Sweetheart’) was planted.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
After a year and a half of envisioning ‘Motek,’ managing the construction, and putting the final touches, we were ready to open the doors in April 2020, but apparently the universe had other plans! Covid-19 hit and created a shockwave for everyone! How could we open a restaurant in a time that all restaurants around us seemed to be closing their doors, one-by-one, and many of them closing for good. With so much uncertainty around us, we did our best to weather the covid storm and pivot. We opened our doors virtually through social media and word-of-mouth to let the community know that Motek was now open for delivery only. Dine-in would soon open at a certain capacity in the following months and then fully by the end of the year as the world was learning to coexist with the pandemic. Shortly thereafter, with great love, support and reception from the community, we opened our 2nd location at the Aventura Mall, in a bigger space with an outdoor patio. Through perseverance, a great team, and an incredible community, we are getting ready to open our 3rd location in Miami Beach in the next coming weeks!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I have a strong passion and love for food, cooking at home, and nutrition, so I always knew after college that wherever I would go, I should choose to work somewhere that I love. Surely, I found my way working in restaurants and health bars where I always felt at home and most at ease. I have specific experience in marketing, branding, and design. However, when I became a mother, I stopped working in restaurants and shifted my focus to being a mom and working with my husband in the Seybold building – where I would continue to work in marketing and branding. Eventually, Motek was born inside Seybold building and we both feel really grateful to watch it grow in the city that we love.
Above all, I am a proud mother of four, and I am a big believer in doing what you love and being happy so that work and motherhood does not feel like a clock-in and clock-out situation…instead, it’s life!
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I am a big believer in risk-taking. Actually, when I was in college where I studied business and entrepreneurship (Babson College), I have ingrained in my head the idea that ‘the bigger the risk, the higher the reward’ so it’s a nice way to look at risk-taking when you think about it from that perspective.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.motekcafe.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/motekcafe
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/motekcafe
