Piccolo Paradiso customers will soon welcome new owner

A smooth transition is forecast for a downtown Camas business, and the community is invited to bid farewell to one owner and greet a new one.

Pam Brown, owner of Caffe Piccolo Paradiso for more than seven years, has sold her business to Jodi Vaughan.

“It feels great,” Brown said. “It’s what I wanted. It makes it worthwhile that something I put my heart and soul into is going to continue.

“I’m very happy with the new owner,” she added. “It will be an easy transition.”

As Brown plans to help Vaughan during the week of Nov. 1, the term “retire” is not applicable.

“I plan to clean my house and write a book,” Brown said.

She said the community had been responding with concern that Piccolo might close before she found a buyer.

“It’s a meeting place for clients and friends,” Brown said.

An open house is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 28, from 5 to 8 p.m. Deborah Hannon, an Italian native from Verona and five-year barista at Piccolo, will also be there. The free event will include appetizers and Prosecco (Italian sparkling wine).

Terms of the sale are not being released.

Vaughan has been a stay-at-home mother of five for 17 years.

“I’ve always loved coffee, and my husband recently opened two fitness facilities,” she said. “It was my turn to do something.”

Vaughan and her husband Doug opened SNAP Fitness, in Woodland in October 2009 and in Battle Ground one month ago. She has been working at those locations since they opened.

Vaughn plans to hire a part-time barista. Other plans at Piccolo include hosting wine tastings and private parties and featuring an Italian “dessert of the month.”

The Vaughans moved to Camas in 2000, after living in France for three years. Doug worked for Hewlett-Packard at the time.

Caffe Piccolo Paradiso, 309 N.E. Birch St., is open Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The menu features breakfast and panini sandwiches, Italian sodas, wine and desserts, focaccia pizzas, gelato, caffe mochas, cappuccinos, hot chocolate and baked goods from Truly Scrumptious, of Camas. For more information, call 834-7044.