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. |
Carmine and Celia , at the Grand Opening of his 162 Cumberland Street location in Yorkville - 2019
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In 2019 Carmine slowly started coming back to life and looking at how he could honour the memory of his late wife, the love of his life and mother of his daughters.
With the support of his daughters, Bianca and Olivia, Carmine began exploring various locations to re-start ZAZA to honour the plans they had to return ZAZA to Yorkville and to continue the legacy they had started for their daughters. The girls helped out part-time during school breaks and weekends. Around the same time Carmine met Celia Missios, an energetic and creative entrepreneur with a passion for business development. Together they put a plan in motion to bring ZAZA back to Yorkville, in memory of Nancy. In 2019 the doors to two ZAZA locations - Yorkville Village Mall and on Yorkville Lanes opened. In 2021 Costantino would also open a ZAZA location in Friday Harbour Resort.
Having built a strong friendship and working relationship Costantino and Missios , opened their first ZAZA, as business partners in Bloor West Village in 2020 and in 2022 they took the authentic Italian cafe experience to mid-town opening their second joint venture inside the Yonge Eglinton Centre. 
Olivia and Celia at Bloor West Village Festival - 2023
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After working seasonally with ZAZA for a couple years, Olivia, the youngest Costantino daughter began to dream of working in the family business and building on her mother's vision for ZAZA. In 2023 Olivia joined ZAZA as a full time barista and is working hard alongside Celia to learn the operations side of running ZAZA.
Carmine, Celia and Olivia Bloor West Village Festival - 2023
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Olivia - December 2022 learning the importance of giving back to the community
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