When Calye DiBella unlocks the doors of DiBella’s Brunch N’ Booze each morning at 7 am, she’s not just opening another restaurant—she’s welcoming neighbors into a space that represents seven and a half years of dedication, relationship-building, and coming full circle in the most meaningful way possible. As the owner of one of Oro Valley’s newest breakfast destinations, Calye has transformed a familiar Oracle Road location into something uniquely her own, bringing together her passion for craft beer, love of brunch, and deep commitment to community service.
From General Manager to Owner: Building Community Through Breakfast and Beyond
The story of DiBella’s Brunch N’ Booze isn’t just about opening a restaurant—it’s about persistence, loyalty, and the power of relationships built over time. Calye didn’t seek out this opportunity; it found her. After nearly a decade managing the same location through two different restaurant concepts, the original Growler USA owner made her an offer that changed everything: “You’ve been running it anyway, so you might as well try.”
That simple statement represents years of trust-building and proven competence. Starting as general manager at Growler USA, a microbrew pub, Calye eventually became district manager for Fire Truck Brewing Company, overseeing all four of their locations. When Fire Truck closed after three and a half years, everything reverted to the Growler USA owner, who recognized in Calye not just an experienced manager, but someone who truly understood the space, the customers, and the community.
“I’ve always loved this store. I’ve always loved everything about it,” Calye explains. “I know all the vendors, all the customers, all the snow birds, the area. This has been my home away from home for eight and a half years.”
Crafting a Unique Breakfast Identity
The transition from night-focused establishments to a breakfast and brunch concept required more than just changing the hours—it demanded a complete reimagining of how the space functions. Where Growler USA had 101 taps and Fire Truck had 48, DiBella’s deliberately started with just 11 beer taps, a strategic decision born from experience.
“We’re only starting off with a few beers on tap to kind of get the feel of what people actually want in here, instead of just deciding for everybody,” Calye notes, demonstrating the customer-focused approach that drives every decision at DiBella’s.
This measured approach extends to every aspect of the restaurant. Rather than competing directly with nearby breakfast chains like First Watch, Snooze, and Jerry Bob’s, Calye positioned DiBella’s as distinctly brunch-focused. “Those are a little more breakfast-focused restaurants, and the difference between breakfast and brunch is your egg dishes. How many egg dishes you carry?” she explains. “We are more brunch focused, where we still have that unique twist on like salty and savory or sweet and savory.”
The menu reflects this philosophy with signature items that elevate familiar concepts. Their Monte Cristo twist exemplifies this approach—instead of deep-frying the classic sandwich, they griddle it like French toast, creating what Calye describes as “a stuffed French toast sandwich” available in four different varieties.
Perhaps most personal is their green chile pulled pork, made from Calye’s mother’s recipe. “It’s actually my mom’s recipe. She would always make this crock pot green chili pork, and I love it, so it had to go on the menu.”
This family connection extends throughout the operation, with Calye’s mother-in-law leaving her 18-year job to become the baker, while her siblings-in-law work as servers, and her brother handles dishwashing duties. “They don’t argue with me,” Calye laughs. “They argue with each other, but not with me.”
Understanding the Local Market Dynamics
Bacon Tacos with Eggs and Breakfast Potatoes
Operating in Oro Valley presented unique challenges that required adapting years of experience in the bar and restaurant industry to new realities. “This location has always been a bar. It’s always been open at 11, open at 11 am and closed at 10 pm, 11 pm at night,” Calye explains. “So I noticed that Oro Valley shuts itself down at seven o’clock at night. There is no reason to be open past seven o’clock at night in Oro Valley.”
The shift from bar service to breakfast service required operational changes that even an experienced manager found surprising. “Everything’s a lot faster now, everything’s a lot more detailed now, lots of questions when it comes to ordering. How do you want your eggs? What sides do you want? How do you want your what kind of bread?” she notes. “Where dinner was, okay? You’ve got a burger — what sides do you want? Okay, great. We’re done.”
This faster pace created new challenges for a kitchen designed initially for slower-paced bar service. The flat-top grill, roughly the size of a small table, can become overwhelmed when “this whole restaurant fills up every single seat, and at least half of them order Monte Cristos. That’s 50 Monte Cristos.”
These operational realities are driving conversations about expansion. Having officially purchased the building in July and with their lease renewal approaching in October, Calye is exploring kitchen expansion possibilities.
Her future plans include converting a horse trailer into a mobile bar for wedding and event services—a secondary business line that allows for personal oversight while expanding revenue opportunities.
After-Hours Innovation and Community Events
One of DiBella’s most innovative approaches to business sustainability has been its after-hours event program. Starting at 3 pm, when regular service ends, they rent the venue for birthday parties, baby showers, rehearsal dinners, and community events. “These after-hour events really help even us out, and really have carried us through the summer,” Calye explains. These events range from intimate gatherings of 15 people for a birthday party to larger events of up to 80 people, which are sometimes open to the public.
Particularly successful have been partnerships with women-owned health and wellness businesses, creating fair-style events where vendors set up booths along the patio for community members to explore. These events demonstrate DiBella’s commitment to supporting other local businesses while creating new revenue streams.
Breakfast Board – Catering
The catering component has expanded beyond the restaurant walls through what Calye calls “home bar” service. “Say you’re having a party at your house, and you have 25 people coming, and you need a bartender to make the drinks for everybody. We can subcontract out our bar tenders to events like that.”
Building Authentic Community Connections
DiBella’s involvement in Oro Valley extends far beyond serving food. As a Chamber of Commerce member actively participating in their “Locals Eat Local” campaign. DiBella’s also joined Tucson Business Networking for regular networking events and OV Tucson Social Club for community social gatherings.
Their commitment to local nonprofits has been particularly meaningful. During the recent Cody fire evacuation, DiBella’s provided lunches for evacuees at the Red Cross evacuation center. “We provided sandwiches, drinks, chips, apples, a bunch of snacks, and stuff for them to be able to just eat lunch there and not have to worry about heading somewhere else.”
Regular nonprofit support includes creating themed raffle baskets for organizations like the Tucson Advocacy Center for dogs, featuring creative presentations like filling a dog bed with treats and flowers. These efforts, promoted primarily through social media, have helped establish DiBella’s as a community-minded business that gives back.
The restaurant has also become a natural gathering spot for local groups, from Pusch Ridge Golf Course members to hikers using the Pusch Ridge Trail system. “We are very close to the Pusch Ridge Trailhead, hikers stop by before or after, and they’re always telling people about us as they’re walking by on the trail,” Calye notes, appreciating the organic word-of-mouth marketing that comes from genuine customer satisfaction.
Navigating Modern Restaurant Challenges
Like many independent restaurants, DiBella’s faces challenges that extend beyond cooking and service. Calye has had to master aspects of business ownership she never handled as a manager, particularly taxes, which she identifies as her “biggest hurdle.” The learning curve has been steep but manageable: “I have learned it, and I am continuing to learn it.”
Staffing represents another significant challenge, but one that DiBella’s approaches strategically. Rather than simply anyone, Calye implements a rigorous two-step interview process. The first step involves a traditional conversation to assess skills and determine a good fit. Candidates who pass then return for a “working interview” where they demonstrate actual cooking abilities.
“I have been in a situation before where I have hired people who said they can make a burger medium, medium rare, well done, and they cannot,” she explains. The working interview involves preparing various egg dishes, testing knife skills, and preparing menu items to ensure candidates can actually demonstrate the skills they claim to possess.
This thorough approach has paid dividends in retention. Since opening nine months ago, Calye reports minimal turnover, with mostly family members working front-of-house and carefully selected outside hires in the kitchen. The combination of competitive wages, well above the minimum wage, for kitchen staff, along with a family-friendly work environment, has created stability in an industry known for high turnover.
The Digital Age Restaurant Reality
One aspect of modern restaurant ownership that particularly frustrates Calye is the impact of online reviews on small businesses.
“When you leave a restaurant a five-star review, it doesn’t just hop up from four stars to 4.1 or 4.2. You have to get like 16 five-star reviews to even move a decimal, whereas when you leave a one-star review, it does automatically take you down a decimal,” she explains.
This algorithmic bias is compounded by customers who leave negative reviews without ever speaking to management about their concerns. “People will leave, they will bash us on the internet, but they never once told the server, a manager, or anybody in the store what their problem was. Quite honestly, I could have fixed it.”
From Calye’s perspective, the solution involves encouraging customers to speak with managers when issues arise and normalizing the process of writing positive reviews for satisfied customers. “Normalize positive reviews. Normalize talking to the manager. Normalize expressing your frustrations, because that’s the only thing that’s going to help, especially for local businesses to succeed.”
Looking Toward the Future
As DiBella’s approaches their first anniversary in December, Calye’s focus remains on sustainable growth and community integration. Immediate future plans include implementing a loyalty program and partnering with diverse local suppliers.
The mobile bar concept represents the most exciting expansion opportunity, allowing DiBella’s to extend their service footprint without the complexity of managing multiple fixed locations. This approach aligns with Calye’s preference for maintaining direct oversight and personal involvement in all aspects of the business.
Her advice for other aspiring restaurant owners reflects hard-won wisdom: understand your market’s specific dynamics, don’t spread yourself too thin too quickly, invest in proper hiring processes, and never underestimate the importance of building community relationships over time.
The Oro Valley Difference
Apple of my Stack
What makes DiBella’s Brunch N’ Booze special isn’t just the creative menu or family atmosphere—it’s the authentic connection to place and people that can only come from years of dedication to a community. Calye’s eight-and-a-half-year journey from employee to owner represents more than career advancement; it exemplifies how deep community roots, combined with entrepreneurial vision, can create something truly meaningful.
In a restaurant landscape increasingly dominated by corporate chains and venture capital-backed concepts, DiBella’s represents something increasingly rare: a genuinely local business born from community relationships and sustained by authentic care for customers and neighbors. When Calye says “the small guys care more” about customers’ lives beyond the restaurant, she’s not just marketing—she’s describing a business philosophy that puts relationship-building at the center of everything they do.
For Oro Valley residents seeking more than just a meal, DiBella’s Brunch N’ Booze offers something special: a place where your server might remember your coffee preference, where the owner’s family recipe becomes a signature dish, and where supporting local business feels like supporting neighbors, because that’s precisely what it is.
