We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michael Beseda. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michael below.

Michael, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

Well – we opened the worlds highest tiki bar. It is probably in the last spot you ever thought to find it – Breckenridge, CO at 9,600 ft above sea level! We loved the idea of getting away from the usual burger and fry or pizza joints and wanted somewhere to enjoy that sunny beach vibe with fresh house made food, creative tropical drinks and exotic atmosphere. Having opened four months before the start of the Covid pandemic we were initially happy to just emerge from the far side of that. Now that we have moved passed that and we are watching the growth of business and the happy smiles we put on our guests faces it feels like we made the right move. Just the pure delight on peoples faces when they walk into our little island oasis and then the even bigger grin when they get to experience our food, drink and hospitality is rewarding on a daily basis.

Michael, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I think our level of hospitality is core to what we do. This is a resort town and it’s easy to take our guests for granted because they are most likely going to come to town wether or not we do a good or bad job. Elevating that experience, from offering a selection of unique non-alcoholic drinks, working with dietary restrictions, helping people find other amazing opportunities in this beautiful location or just lighting a drink on fire. Nothing is more rewarding than someone telling you that you not only helped make their vacation special, but exceptional. Not everywhere pulls that off and it is something that the whole team at Castaways Cove does that really sets us apart from others.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met Justin when I was still working for a liquor distributor and he owned a different restaurant. We quickly bonded over our love of food, drinks, punk rock and mischief. We decided that we also had a friendship and spent a few years traveling to Las Vegas for a music festival. During our time there we discussed our desire to open a restaurant that provided not only great food and drink but also a level of escapism that is so important when it snows nine months out of the year. When the opportunity arose for us to open a tiki bar in Breckenridge, CO we knew it was the right decision. We still enjoy great food, drinks and punk rock and hopefully the rest is a whole lot more of history.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

COVID!

Ha, we opened in November of 2019 and had to close the doors in March of 2020 due to government regulations. We got really good at filling out government forms, PPP loans, local grants, all kinds of things. As we were allowed to reopen with restrictions we managed to keep all of our staff on the payroll. Sometimes a bartender had to learn to cook for a day, but we did our best to support our staff in such a difficult time. You can’t work from home if your a bartender! Even coming back with limited capacity, we had to adapt to a different perspective. One thing we did was develop a draft cocktail system, we make all of our own mixes and aim to refresh them every day or so, so that they maintain a high level of quality and freshness. This let our front of the house staff have an opportunity to increase efficiency and serve our guests in a timely manner without having to over staff given our limited seating. It feels like we have come out on the far side of things and happy to be here. There may have been some close moments but the resilience and ability to adapt from our staff really pushed us through to where we are now.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.castawaysbreck.com
• Instagram: castaways_breck
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/CastawaysBreck
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/castaways-cove-breckenridge