A Saint Anselm alumna has started her own company right here in Manchester. Business major Alex Puglisi, who graduated in 2011, opened Café La Reine on Elm Street last Thursday. The grand opening hosted former Governor John Lynch and Mayor Ted Gatsas, who both plan to be regular customers.

Mayor Gatsas, said “Just another storefront that’s got a great little cafe in here, and I invite everybody in Manchester to come down and visit.”

Governor Lynch gave the young businesswoman some advice to market her new establishment.

She said, “Figure out how to get someone in each business to email friends a menu,” he said.

Puglisi had dreams of starting a café for about two years now. She knew by her senior year that she wanted to make her business a coffee shop hang-out.

She said, “I love the idea of the coffeehouse, and the cafe atmosphere.”

While Puglisi knew she wanted to start her coffee shop in Manchester, the atmosphere she wanted was still a mystery. She worked at a variety of coffee houses and traveled around Boston and southern New Hampshire to see what she liked and didn’t like about each place.

Puglisi said that a class she took at Saint Anselm established her initial vision of what she wanted from her establishment.

“Paris-New York in the Twenties and Thirties” is an elective course the college offers that shows how artists and writers in that time period found their inspiration at coffee houses in the cities.

“In the class we studied how the cafés in Paris and New York fostered discussions and kind of a sub-culture, I guess, of artists and writers,” she said.

The café has a cozy vibe with exposed brick, wooden floors, and comfortable couches. The main features will be espresso-based drinks, smoothies, tea, salads, wraps, and soups.

The décor also features New England relics like old fishing gear and maps from yard sales and flea markets.

Puglisi said the key to achieving this vision has been self-sufficiency. This is something that she is familiar with.

When Puglisi came to Saint Anselm she founded the mock trial team since it was something she felt the school needed. Now the team is successful and achieves a high status in their tournaments.

She said, “If there’s something lacking in the community that I’m in, I feel like I need to be the one to start it.”

The business logistics started right after Puglisi graduated.

She began working on her business plan immediately after graduating, and came up with what she needed to achieve her vision.

“I stopped working altogether and focused on my business plan,” she said.

Puglisi received a commercial loan, found the type of products she wanted, and hired seven employees for the business.

Now that the business is up and running, Puglisi says she is focused on maintaining her products in stock, and keeping up with day-to-day demands.

She has 200 days to make ends meet, and based on the opening day, it looks like she will not have a lot of problems achieving that goal.