When Jasmin Endaya talks about Third Cup Café, she begins with people.
Every morning in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, she sees customers settling in with coffee, breakfast, lunch, or a quiet moment with friends. Some are regulars. Some are visitors fresh from the Yarmouth-to-Maine ferry. Some are seniors who know exactly how they like their eggs. To Jasmin, they are more than customers.
“I feel like they are family,” she says.
That sense of belonging is the heart of Third Cup Cafe; a warm and welcoming spot Jasmin opened in June 2024. It is also the heart of her own story: a journey that began in the Philippines, stretched through Kuwait and Calgary, and eventually found a home in Yarmouth.
A Journey Rooted in Coffee
Long before she owned a cafe, Jasmin was building a life around coffee. “Coffee is my passion,” she says. After working as a barista in the Philippines, she took an opportunity with Starbucks in Kuwait, where she rose from barista to supervisor to manager. The work was demanding, fast-paced, and full of pressure, but it shaped her.
“I learned hard work, discipline, and how to serve people with passion,” she says.
Later, an employment opportunity brought her to Canada. She first lived in Calgary, working at Swiss Chalet from 2013 to 2015, before a friend encouraged her to consider Yarmouth. At first, Jasmin had to look it up.
“I was like, where is Yarmouth?” she says with a laugh. “I needed to check it out on Google.”
Her husband came first, and Jasmin followed, though she admits she was unsure at the beginning. Once she arrived, she worked at Mary Brown’s, Burger King, and eventually spent seven years in a local coffee shop. But even as she gave her best to other businesses, a feeling kept growing.
“All my ideas, I’m pouring into it,” she recalls. “It’s not my own.”
Finding the Right Place
So when the possibility arose to buy the coffee shop where she had been working, Jasmin began exploring business ownership. She went to CBDC Yarmouth and spoke with Kristina Nuja, a familiar face who had once worked with her at Burger King. Christina did not want to discourage Jasmin’s dream, but she was honest: a brand-new start-up seemed like it might be a better fit.
“She said, ‘I don’t want to steal your ambition,’” Jasmin remembers.
Kristina helped her search for a new space while simultaneously guiding her through the process of business planning and permitting. The search took a bit longer than hoped. Some spaces needed too much renovation. Others were too expensive or did not have the right traffic. Finally, just when it seemed like they’d hit a wall, Kristina pointed her toward the John Street location that would eventually become Third Cup Café.
“We never stopped looking for spaces,” Jasmin says.
With CBDC Yarmouth’s support, startup financing, and plenty of determination, she opened Third Cup Café just in time for the 2024 summer season. The risk was real. Yarmouth already had coffee shops, restaurants, fast food options, and familiar chains. Jasmin knew some people wondered whether another café could work.
“I’m just gonna try because this is my passion,” she says. “If it didn’t work out, at least I tried.”
It did work.
From the beginning, Jasmin says, the community showed up. “I’m so blessed and so grateful with the help of the community,” she says. “Building a business, it’s risky. CBDC is the one who trusted me most.”
A Café that Feels Like Family
Today, Third Cup Café is open seven days a week and employs about a dozen people, including three full-time staff and several part-time or seasonal team members. The menu reflects Jasmin’s instinct for giving people what they actually want: classic breakfasts, light coffee, rice bowls, sandwiches, burgers, desserts, teas, and customizable options for customers who want something smaller or more specific.
“We can always work with what customers want,” she says.
That flexibility matters, especially for the seniors who come in for a simple breakfast, or the regulars who have made Third Cup part of their daily routine. Jasmin notices who is there, who is missing, and what is happening in their lives. Sometimes a customer shares that a friend or family member is in the hospital. Sometimes someone who usually visits every day has not been seen in a week, and Jasmin starts asking about them.
Her favourite part of the business is simple: “Interaction with customers,” she says. “Every day that I come to work, I see customers here relaxing. They feel at home.”
That feeling has helped Third Cup earn a loyal following, even though Jasmin describes the café as a bit of a “hidden gem,” tucked away from the main road. In summer, the CAT ferry brings new faces through the door, often visitors from Maine or Bar Harbor looking for breakfast and coffee. They often tell her how much they love Yarmouth: the sea, the town, and the kindness of the people.
The busy season has also taught her how to adapt. During last year’s car show, the cafe was so busy that the lineup stretched outside the door. This year, Jasmin is planning ahead with buffet-style options to help the kitchen keep up and to make the experience smoother for customers and staff.
Those lessons are part of growing a business. So is finding ways to give back. Third Cup offers discounts and promotions when it can, supports community requests for donations or sponsorships, and stays active online with daily specials, seasonal ideas, and holiday offerings. Jasmin is also part of the local Chamber of Commerce and has found encouragement from other local business owners.
“Small businesses help small businesses,” she says.
Two years in, Jasmin’s proudest moment is celebrating the café’s anniversary with the people who helped make Third Cup what it is. “We built a loyal base, regulars who came in daily and entered Third Cup like their second home,” she says. “Seeing customers happy and comfortable here makes our hearts full. That’s our real profit.”
Growing Slowly, Surely, and With Purpose
Looking ahead, she is dreaming carefully but confidently. She would like to build a website with online ordering, create seasonal menus, host events like karaoke and trivia nights, and one day, perhaps open a second branch.
“Slowly, but surely,” she says. “But I really want to have a second location.”
For now, Jasmin is often right where her customers expect her to be: in the cafe, greeting people, checking in, working long days, and building the business one cup, one meal, and one conversation at a time. Customers sometimes tell her she should take more time off. She jokes with them that she lives there.
“This is my life,” she says. “It’s tiring. But I’m happy.”
For anyone else holding an entrepreneurial dream but hesitating at the edge of it, Jasmin offers the same advice her own story now proves:
“If you have a goal and ambition, don’t hesitate,” she says. “If you have faith in yourself, if you have passion, if you love what you do, then go for it.”