Jenny Benoit-Assaf from Plaisance, mother of three young children (7, 4, and 3), epitomises an entrepreneur mum — juggling two businesses and a young family. After working overseas in the tourism and corporate event industry for many years, Jenny returned to Seychelles to set down roots once again. Jenny and her husband Roy, who is of Lebanese origin, decided to raise their young family in Seychelles.

Semi-Sub Café is a unique Mediterranean fusion cafe on the waterfront of Eden Island. They recently opened the Semi-Sub Café at the North Marina of Eden Island to complement their thriving Semi-Sub business.

The Café

“In complete honesty, my husband and I had always wanted a café of our own. But, mainly driven by our love for good food and passion for hosting and entertaining friends – we realised that we could enhance the experience of our Semi-Sub tour passengers by offering them a place to relax while waiting for their boat ride. So we embarked on the journey to set up the café without hesitation,” said Jenny.

Semi-Sub Café’s menu offers a unique Mediterranean cuisine-inspired dishes, including homemade hummus (vegan) and labneh (vegetarian), Armenian sausages (halal) and Turkish coffee, but they also serve some much loved Seychelles-inspired dishes like banana chips and smoked fish quiches. For the sweet tooth, several choices are available, including ice cream, milkshakes, Cappuccino, Caramel Frappe and homemade cakes and tarts, which are an absolute delight and loved by all ages. The Café boasts spectacular views of the marina and Mahe island. It is a nice hangout place for light lunches, meetings, or after-work drinks. Semi Sub Café also hosts happy hours where clients enjoy ordering their cheesy nachos platter and pizza while sipping their beer, wine, or favourite mocktails and cocktails.

Work-Life Balance

Jenny admits that getting the right balance can be tricky.” when your business is new, you have to put in more hours, so it has been hard work, but with the support of my husband,Roy, we make it work, and we make sure that we have quality time with the children. We take turns picking up the kids from nursery and school and opening the café. We are lucky to have recruited and trained some excellent staff we can rely on. Having a young family and running two businesses is hard — we have passion and a vision, so that keeps us motivated.”

The Future

The Semi Sub Café is still in its infancy, and Jenny said there is much to be done to get the café to its full potential. However, they have had fantastic feedback, and they take all the feedback seriously, be it negative or positive. “The café today looks very similar to the image we had in our mind from day one, and we are delighted with how it turned out. For this, I must thank all who helped us make this project a reality. And we will work hard to ensure that Semi Sub Café keeps the good reputation we’ve established for ourselves.”

Semi-Sub Café is open Monday to Thursday from 8:30 am to 9 pm and remains open till midnight on Friday and Saturday. You can follow them on Facebook and on Instagram so you do not miss out on their promotional offers!