Landing in a small town created a huge opportunity for Bee Roll.
“I started connecting to Ypsi because of a few folks I’d met here, then found myself in a visioning meeting about zing potentially opening something in Ypsi down the road. Ypsi really spoke to my vagrant, so I began hanging out here a bit,” Roll said.
Bee was inspired at a young age to take a different path in life.
“At 16 I was kicked out of highschool and ended up leaving home. My mom had been a bartender and I grew up in restaurants. I kinda wanted to get far away from that life,” Roll said.
“I started working at Roast & Toast when I was 16 and fell in love with the energy of a morning cafe,” Roll said.
Roll became a manager at Roast & Toast, she stayed there for about six years. She then accepted a position at Zingerman’s Roadshow.
She was trying to escape the cooking workforce, but ended up pursuing a career in it.
“I kept coming back to the food industry. Then I had my first child at 22 in 1999. While I was on maternity leave I realized I really loved taking care of people. And I found a way to do that by nurturing a staff and team and making delicious food,” Roll said.
In 2009 Bee opened her restaurant Beezy’s Cafe, hiring employees with different skill sets to help build her team.
“I couldn’t do anything without them, it’s a ‘we’ thing,” said Roll.
Bee enjoys creating an equal work environment for her employees. “My crew is extremely important to me without my crew I have nothing,” Roll said.
Roll continues to serve the Ypsilanti community. She has been recruited by Ann Arbor however, she decided to stay in Ypsilanti.
“I fell in love with Ypsilanti, coming here made me comfortable. It felt like home,” Roll said.
Roll continues to stick with keeping her restaurant in Ypsilanti because she believes in building community.
“I aim to support the community in ways that represent the diversity of Ypsi and also maintain exceedingly high standards of integrity and care for everyone who comes through the doors,” Roll said.
Owning a business is important to Roll for multiple reasons. “The best part of owning a business is the ability to shape and influence so many people through positive action one of my personal mottos is “it ain’t always pretty, but it’s real,” Roll said.
Roll is proud of her accomplishments, and shares her achievements with the Ypsilanti community.
“I wasn’t sure what I would end up doing as a career, I just did what I loved,” Roll said.
Roll has created her own restaurant specialities to share with the community. “Some of our specialities are breakfast burrito featuring chorizo from dos hermanos market, our signature french toast... fresh baked bread, soup from scratch, small batch mega fresh ingredients in our sandwiches and salads,” Roll said.
Roll has a created a saying she created to describe the menu at Beezy’s. “Simple, Honest, Food”
