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\u201cMy husband went to check it out, and he came back and said \u2018this could be a game-changer for us\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it was. They moved from their home in Florida to Tennessee and began building a life together. Joe got a job as a car salesman, and Jessica got pregnant shortly after finishing beauty school. Being a stay-at-home mom became her full-time job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI did that for a really long time and loved it,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s how this all came to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While raising two children, Jessica made spaghetti at least once a week (like many families). She said that there was no authentic Italian food in the area, so if you wanted good Italian food you had to drive to Murfreesboro to get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven then you may not be getting something that\u2019s truly homemade,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She knew that her sauce was special. The recipe is years in the making, crafted by generations of Italian home cooks and lives only in Jessica\u2019s head. It\u2019s handmade locally, in small batches. There\u2019s no added sugar or salt. (it\u2019s unnecessary when the ingredients are this flavorful, she said).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI figured if people were going to go to the store and buy a jar of something full of God-knows-what \u2026 I started to think maybe somebody would be interested in this,\u201d she said. \u201cThis would take care of somebody\u2019s dinner for tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the summer of 2021, she set up a stand at the weekly Community Market to sell her sauce. At first her goal was to sell to just one person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t about the money,\u201d she said. \u201cI just wanted to feed people. It\u2019s what I enjoy doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it became a hit, selling out at the market week after week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the beginning of 2022, Joe lost his job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTrying to find something that we could support ourselves on was very difficult,\u201d Jessica said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither of them had any experience in the restaurant business, but Jessica continued to sell out at the Community Market. Joe suggested that if they were going to \u201cdo this,\u201d they should \u201cdo it 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They made a plan to begin selling more homemade Italian dishes, such as desserts, handmade pasta, lasagna, and garlic bread. But to meet health department standards they needed a certified kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joe connected with Mercantile Cafe and Sweet Simplicity owner Renee Holt. What started as a conversation about tourism in Manchester ended with Holt offering the couple a space in her commercial kitchen so they could expand their business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat was when everything went from zero to 100,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holt had also started selling goods weekly at the Community Market before becoming a successful local restaurateur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe knows all about it, because she lived it,\u201d Jessica said. At the beginning of July, Mama Licata\u2019s Italian officially opened its storefront on High Street for hotplate lunches a few days a week (as they work around Holt and her staff in the Mercantile kitchen).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe thought \u2018let\u2019s go really slow and see how we can make this work, if we can make this work,\u2019\u201d Jessica said. They are making it work. They continue to sell out most Saturdays at the market, and their hot lunches have brought in hoards of new customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe hear so many people say, \u2018We love having something Italian in this town,\u2019 or \u2018There\u2019s no food like this here,\u2019\u201d Jessica said. \u201cAll of our customers are so nice and so supportive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some customers have even forked over their own home-grown herbs for the greater good of the sauce \u2013 several of them gifting to The Licatas, fresh basil from their gardens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhich has been so awesome, because we use a lot of it,\u201d Jessica said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She and Joe are getting the restaurant\u2019s schedule and menu down pat before they open for more days and move into a kitchen of their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI will never give anyone anything that I wouldn\u2019t eat myself,\u201d Jessica said. \u201cI\u2019m a perfectionist when it comes to that. I don\u2019t want anybody to get cold food or too small of a portion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mama Licata\u2019s menu regularly features spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, handmade pasta (by the bag), garlic bread, garlic butter, and cannolis. They also offer specials, like manicotti, Italian ratatouille, and other desserts that are added weekly. While Joe and Jessica are mastering new dishes all of the time and broadening their horizons (onto alfredo) as new business owners, one thing remains the same: Mama Licata\u2019s Italian has got the sauce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know my sauce is good, but I guess I never really saw it going to this level,\u201d Jessica said. \u201cI just wanted to feed people.\u201d GN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" IT STARTED with the sauce. Take crushed tomatoes, add a splash of red wine, a whole lot of basil, and a few secret ingredients, and you get a hearty and authentic Italian red sauce that\u2019s not too sweet, not too savory, and exactly what the families in Manchester were looking for. Before the age of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-6896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","tag-november"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/DSC_5964-2-1-1024x682.jpg\")
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