Meet Andrew and Misty Modrzejewski | Chef and Restaurateur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Andrew and Misty Modrzejewski and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Andrew and Misty, how do you think about risk?
I feel like risk taking is a necessary step to growing and furthering yourself both professionally and personally. The fear and uncertainty are what forces you to grow. One quote that I personally love. “if you don’t take risks you will always work for someone who does”

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
What sets us apart from others is our passion for food, our twenty years plus in food service experience, lots and lots of hard work, and a crazy little phone call with the idea of opening a restaurant in a tiny town in Colorado. Professionally I was a Chef in San Diego at a local Casino called Sycuan. I put myself through culinary school and ended up running 3 restaurants. Misty was a card room server for the last 20 years who has a knack for working with people, vast experience working in a fast paced and often chaotic environment. The road has not been easy especially when you add raising a family in the mix. We feel all the time spent in this industry was preparation for doing what we are currently doing at Mojos Eatery. Some of the lessons we have learned along have been, always be kind to people your small gestures can brighten their day, always listen to your guests, there is no substitute for hard work, constantly humble yourself and being thankful for what you have. We want people to know our brand Mojos Eatery represents hard working and honest small businesses, we are passionate about showing the world our love of food and introducing quality fresh ingredients to our guests, and we will always strive to do our very best!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Salida is a small mountain town with many fun things to do. First, we would have our friend come to Mojos Eatery for breakfast to get ready for the day. Second we would take a walk to the downtown Salida area get some of our favorite Coffee at Cafe Dawn then proceed to sit alongside the river to drink our Coffee. After we were all gassed up for the day we would ask them if they would prefer a hike, bike ride, fishing, rafting, or swimming or if in winter we could go skiing or snow boarding. Then after we had finished our adventure we would probably take them to dinner at Amicas for some wood fired pizza and then finish out the evening at our favorite local brewery Tres Litros. There is plenty of sites to see in the local area some of our personal favorites would be Mt. Princeton hot springs where you can soak in the natural hot springs, the Royal gorge bridge with its breath taking views, or Bishops Castle.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Terri and Greg Walters are two people we would love to recognize in our sucess. They are parents, mentors, support group, and partners in business. They have helped up in countless ways to realize our dreams and continuing to drive to a successful and sustaining business. Also we would love to thank our children for supporting us in moving from our home in San Diego to a small town called to Salida to follow our dreams.

Website: www.mojoseatery.com

Instagram: mojoseatery

Facebook: @MojosEatery142

Yelp: Mojo’s Eatery

Other: google use at Mojos Eatery