- August 13, 2026
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If you live in Southwest Florida and like either coffee or sandwiches, there’s a high probability you’ve already come into contact with Scott and Diana Willis, perhaps without even knowing it.
The couple — Scott, 64, Diana, 62, have been married almost 40 years — got into the restaurant and hospitality franchise business some three decades ago. Their tenure has crossed a variety of concepts, from a fast-food giant to an upstart coffee house.
Along the way, the Willis’ have learned some key entrepreneurial lessons, including adapting to what the community needs, the importance of creating a social hub and the balance between maintaining a beloved brand and giving it a unique identity.
The couple got into the fast-food industry at the highest level: McDonald’s, owning one in Bryant, Arkansas after Diana started her career primarily in property management. They moved to Florida in 2000, seeking a new opportunity and adventure.
That came in Jason’s Deli, the Texas-based sandwich and salad bar purveyor that, at the time, had only a few locations in Florida. Then, in 2023, with four Jason’s Deli stores in their portfolio, they added a new component: Foxtail Coffee. They opened their first Foxtail within a pre-existing Jason’s Deli location — an innovative approach to coupling brands. An early inkling of success there led them to sign a 10-store deal with the Winter Park coffee brand, ensuring any Foxtail property in Lee County will be under their name. They opened their fourth location in early August at Latimer Crossing, the Fort Myers Housing Authority’s new mixed-income community on Cleveland Avenue.
“Leaving a big brand like McDonald’s was a difficult choice, but when we saw what Jason’s Deli was doing in the arena of food and the high-quality nature and buying their own distribution company was a game-changer in controlling the kind of food they brought in,” Diana Willis says in a Zoom interview. “That’s where we take from the vantage point of Foxtail Coffee. Foxtail is starting out at such a high level of integrity and resourcefulness and thoughtfulness and just developing the brand in a way that is of high quality, so it kind of aligns with our value system.”
In total, the Willis’ own four Foxtail and four Jason’s Deli locations. Diana Willis declines to disclose revenue numbers, noting the company’s Jason’s Deli locations employ a total of 139 people and Foxtail Coffee has 35 baristas.
The community ethos at Foxtail, meanwhile, is a good match for what Diana Willis says she looks for in a coffee shop.
“We were always thoughtful about the kind of coffee that we drank. When I met the team at Foxtail and saw what they were doing, I realized that this kind of aligned with how we view coffee in general,” she says. “There is a place for a thoughtful cup of coffee that really becomes a community hub that people want to enjoy, and that’s really what we wanted to connect to.”
In order to test this hypothesis, the Willis’ decided to use a property they already had — more than 5,000 square feet at one of their Jason’s Deli locations at 2700 Immokalee Road in Naples. At one point, Willis says, the deli could seat about 212 patrons. It was too much real estate, and they knew it. But what if they used part of the space to open a Foxtail Coffee? The stars would have to align.
“We would have to have Jason’s Deli be okay with it, but more importantly, we had to get our landlord whom we leased from to also be okay with it and to lock in some time that we knew we would get a return on that kind of investment to change that up,” she says. “And everybody said yes.”
The idea was to delineate the brands entirely — one side would be a Foxtail Coffee and feel that way while the other would remain a Jason’s Deli. The only shared space was some refrigeration in the back of the house and the restrooms. A perfect opportunity for experimentation.
From there, they learned some valuable lessons: the Foxtail Coffee brand had traction, but there were benefits to adding drive-through options and evaluating which neighborhoods and locations were most in need of a community space.
Three years later, they are on Foxtail No. 4, with the Latimer Crossing location in partnership with the Housing Authority of the City of Fort Myers. “For us to be able to create an amenity for those residents and for the community at large, we feel like it’s just a win-win,” Willis says, “but it kind of is a testament to how we view our commitment to our community in general.”
While they may have gotten their start within Southwest Florida in Jason’s Deli’s, the Willis’ are now looking toward Foxtail Coffee as the future for their business. Part of that is because the financials, they say, behind opening a new Jason’s Deli just don’t work as well as they used to.
“To build out a Jason’s Deli in today’s dollars doesn't make sense for us on the return on investment with the way the market is in terms of food costs and labor,” says Diana Willis.
In past years, it cost roughly $1 million to open a new Jason’s Deli. Now it’s at least 50% higher, she says, so closer to $1.5 million.
“I think coffee is having a moment,” she adds. “It’s become a little bit more in the mainstream of culture and, thanks to big brands, people are starting to recognize it as a daily stop.”
More than most, Foxtail franchise operations manager Lindsey Ventriglia has been a witness to the changes in the hospitality industry — and the couple’s strategy in it. She has worked for the Willis’ for 18 years and truly risen her way through the ranks, from an order-taker and hourly employee at Jason’s Deli. In fact, her entire working career has been spent with the couple.
“They’re family and they make it all about family,” Ventriglia says. “I’m born and raised in Southwest Florida, and it was very close to home for me physically but also emotionally, being able to connect and give back to the community like they do.”
But that doesn’t mean success hasn’t come with challenges. In Florida, there are challenges as much logistical, like ingress and egress, as operational, like the rising cost of doing business and the ever-difficult labor market.
“There are lots of good people out there, but finding who they are is sometimes a challenge,” Willis says. “I would say the bigger challenge is, when you have such a strong and lengthy tenure with your people, keeping them fresh and excited.”
Part of that starts with the stamp the Willis’ put on any location they operate.
“I know people that have traveled and gone into multiple locations that are part of the Jason’s Deli brand, and they go into ours, and they always say it feels different,” Diana Willis says. “I like to think that it’s our culture.”
Rosie Tchekmeian, Foxtail Coffee’s vice president of development and real estate, echoes that idea, noting Diana and Scott Willis have always been involved in the community, attending “the right events” and making sure “the brand is in front of the right people.”
Each Foxtail location is known for having a mural in its interior, and at each Willis-owned spot, the mural is customized to fit with the community. In Naples, Ventriglia says, that means featuring the Naples Pier, while in Cape Coral, there is a mural of a characteristic canal.
“We’re in the people business,” Ventriglia says. “We just happen to serve sandwiches and coffee.”
