We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andrew Modrzejewski a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Andrew thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?
One of the biggest challenges we face in the restaurant industry is the ever-increasing cost of food and paper goods. Our mission is to feed people high quality fresh ingredients, and this is becoming harder and harder to accomplish. I have never been one to sacrifice good ingredients for the sake of making a profit. The problem in our demographic is we have a larger number of middle aged to older people that feel the $6.99 Two egg breakfast still exists. Which I hate to have to be the bearer of bad news but that is incorrect if you would like a farm fresh eggs, fresh fruit or potatoes, quality bacon or sausage, and toast $6.99 will not cut it. A large portion of our population is under the assumption we are making some giant profit charging them $12.99 for a Two egg breakfast when the truth is we are barely making industry standard mark up. Then you add %8 city and county taxes now we are getting bad reviews because we are “too expensive”. This can be a very challenging and discouraging at times. Thankfully we have enough people around us who support and understand how things this day in age work. Secondly another large challenge we face is the large increase in the cost of living since covid the housing market has doubled even tripled in rural Colorado and in a lot of other spots across the United States. This in turn makes for finding quality team members almost impossible. I all for paying team members a worthy wage. But the problem is how possible is this when a 1000 square foot home costs 3/4 of a million dollars…
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My wife and I have been in the hospitality industry for 20 years. I got my start as a cook in a Casino in San Diego California, Where I realized my love of cooking. I put myself through culinary school while working as a line cook and also delivering pizzas to support our growing family. My wife was a card room server which serviced anywhere for 400-1000 guests a day. We are both big foodies of course always seeking out new and exciting foods. By the time I finished my employment at Sycuan Casino I had helped open 2 new restaurants and overseen operations in 5 restaurants overall including a fine dining establishment called “Viewpoint” in their recent $120 million dollar hotel addition. Once covid hit my wife and I found ourselves like many others unemployed. Although I was brought back to work after only a month of being out it opened our eyes to wanting to be closer to family in Colorado. Thats where the dream of Mojos Eatery was started with our vast amount of experience, we wanted to bring something different to the small town of Salida where my parents have called home for the last 30 years. It’s been almost three years now I feel like we have established solid reputation and we continue to look for fun and creative meals to bring to our guests never compromising on quality and freshness. We want people to know we are full on family owned and operated. We want to be an example to our children and everyone else that your dreams are always attainable you just have to be willing to do the work!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
We had to take a bid leap of faith when we decided to leave our home in San Diego and move to the small rural town of Salida to open a new business during the pandemic. So many questions running through our minds at the time. Will we be successful, will our kids like it here, will we like it here, is there enough people to support another restaurant, do we really know what we are doing LOL. It took 8 months of spending our savings a not bringing in much income until our opening. It was tough at times, but you have to just believe in yourself and keep pushing forward.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Building our social media presence is still an ongoing daily focus. My wife Misty is our social media guru so to speak. One of the largest and most effective things we have found to work is to post content as much as possible. We have many photos of food, and we try to put out something every day, so you stay relevant in everyone’s mind. We are still working on ways to increase views on social media including an up-and-coming event with a professional competition eater. He has millions of followers on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms so we will let you know how it goes!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mojoseatery.com
- Instagram: mojos eatery
- Facebook: Mojos eatery
- Yelp: mojos eatery
Image Credits
Misty Modrzejewski