This Couple Quit Their Jobs To Open A Pizza Shop On A Boat In The Caribbean

Tara and Sasha Bouis, once a teacher and programmer, respectively, are living out your dream life — a few years ago, they left their jobs to live full in time on St. Thomas, an island in the Caribbean.

For a little while, the couple worked on guest charter boats, Tara as the chef and Sasha as the captain. One night, they were too tired to cook, and wistfully wished that there were a pizzeria — much like those of Sasha's native New York City — nearby.

The solution, the enterprising couple decided, was in their hands.

"Pizza speaks to everybody," Tara told Bloomberg Business. "Food trucks had become a part of everyday life — food boats had not. We knew that the concept was strange but thought it could work, because the food is very recognizable."

The couple restored the boat to restaurant conditions by themselves, aided heavily by YouTube videos, which took two years. A month before they opened, Tara and Sasha took a weeklong course in New York-style pizza from Goodfellas, a cooking school on Staten Island.

They named the boat Pizza π, and it's currently rated the best restaurant on St. Thomas on TripAdvisor. At least once, the couple used pizza to barter for other goods — once, a customer offered a seven-pound lobster in exchange for a pizza.

"It's not your typical form of payment, but it works," Tara told Bloomberg.