Bubble tea, many tasty delights come to Port City

By Maria Pericozzi

Alyssa Flynn has brought bubble tea to Oswego by fulfilling her dream of opening J&J Café, 18 W. Bridge St.

Bubble tea is a Japanese-based drink with milk, fruit flavoring and tapioca balls or juice bubbles. J&J Café also serves coffee, pie, cookies, scones, muffins, cupcakes, soup, salad, paninis and breakfast.

“A lot of people are asking what bubble tea is,” Flynn said. “I’m the only one as of right now selling it in Oswego.”

The tapioca balls and juice bubbles are expensive because they are shipped to Oswego right from Japan. “It’s the price of shipping that gets you,” Flynn said.

“Destiny USA is the closest place that sells bubble tea. I’ve had a bunch of people come in and tell me they’re saving on a trip to Destiny by coming here,” she said.

One of Flynn’s biggest dreams was to open a café. She spent close to $11,000 making her dream come true in the middle of April when she opened the location. Before that, she spent four months renovating the building. There was no ceiling, no walls, no bathroom and some tiles needed to be replaced. Flynn and her husband Brandon also built the kitchen from scratch.

“I hope to stay busy, eat local and shop local,” Flynn said.

Before opening the business, Flynn was a full-time mom and decided to open the business for her two children. J&J stands for her two son’s names, Jonathan, who is 5, and Jackson, who is 2.

Flynn is from Sodus Point and commutes to Oswego each day. She said she eventually would relocate to Oswego. Until then, she drives 45 minutes each way, bringing baked goods from her mother’s bakery in Sodus Point. She also purchases coffee from Sodus Point, but would like to eventually purchase other brands as well.

“I would like to expand eventually and get more employees,” Flynn said.

Eventually, Flynn would also like to expand the menu to serve dinner.

“We’re a big breakfast family, so we like French toast for dinner,” Flynn said. “So that’s why we really chose to serve breakfast.”

Being a business owner is time consuming, Flynn said.

“I’m busy and it’s very exhausting,” she said. “But I know how to juggle it because I have kids. I’m already able to multitask.”

Opening a business is a lot of work, Flynn said.

“I give props to whoever has been doing this for many, many years,” she added.

Flynn chose Oswego to open the café because she loves the area and didn’t want to be too close to her mom’s bakery while she sold her mom’s baked goods.

“With my mom having her bakery too, we wanted to have a little gap between us,” Flynn said.