"Work doesn't escape me," he says.
Melo says his Portuguese heritage has helped prepare him for a life of hard work.
"The Portuguese people...have a lot of pride," he says. "Where we come from, a small country, we knew what hard work means."
But in the United States, Melo enjoys the benefits of keeping busy, which are not always guaranteed in the Azores.
"When you work here you see results," he says. "If you manage your money right, save a little, you can retire comfortably. There you struggle a little to survive."
Now that Pizzeria As-Ilhas has opened, it is Melo's fondest dream to return with his family to the islands of his boyhood.
"I miss it a lot, and tell stories to my kids," he says. "I want to go back for three weeks to do the things I used to do when I was 12 or 13--go fishing, walk along the mountains."
Until then, Melo has contented himself by creating a little taste of the Azores in Inman Square.