We were lucky to catch up with Ty Fulcher recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ty thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Since I was a kid I had always wanted my own restaurant. I played restaurant as a child and had a menu which I used to sell my parents food out of the pantry back to them. It has always been an industry that looked like fun, high energy and social engaging. And I could not have been more right. I have worked in restaurants consistently since I was 14 and could not imagine doing anything else. Social was created through experiences I have had over years in the industry, places I have traveled over my life, and passion to bring a style of bar that was lacking in Fort Collins at the time, all combined with the goal of having a place focused on Genuine Hospitality.
Fort Collins has long been known for its beer but at the time did not have a strong spirits interest. Our goal was to change that and introduce people to the amazing world of distilled spirits. By finding a staff who was passionate enough, and geeky enough, to want to introduce and educate our guests into this new world, Social came to be.

Ty, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started working in the hospitality industry at the age of 14 with a catering company. That soon led to bussing in a restaurant and over time has progressed into working in every position the restaurant industry has to offer. From there I continued to dream about owning and operating my own place one day. I slowly had been writing business plans and formulating different concepts and bouncing them off friends and colleagues until something finally started to click.

I was lucky enough at the time to work as a manager at my now partners restaurant where he had been grooming me on what ownership is like. After being run around the gauntlet over an over with new projects of what I need to do next for my business plan, Ryan finally agreed to partner with me and we opened our first place together, Social.
Social was nearly an instant success with the town really embracing what we were trying to bring to town in a combination with a staff that was fully behind our vision of hospitality and passion.

Five years later we decided to start our most recent concept, Union. Union was a unique project in that it was our first time developing land and building a structure from the ground up. Union is a modern take on the classic American soda fountain and bar. Boasting modern American comfort foods, classic soda fountain beverages, alcoholic milkshakes, and a killer bar program. This was also our largest venture, seating 195 guests inside, and another 150 on the amazing outdoor patio area.

Both have been very successful and an absolute blast to develop and see grow.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

When social opened we did not do a lot of marketing. We decided to keep it word of mouth so that we could start to get our feet under us, as we started off busier than we had ever expected. As we got stronger and everyone grew their knowledge of the immense collection of spirits, we started to creep into marketing through social media and print ads. Direct mailers also turned out to be a very good driver for us as well. In the restaurant industry, it is said you should spend approximately 3% on marketing. We have always held around the 0.5% max and it has worked well for us. Maybe one day we will try the full 3%, but who knows what it will do and if it will be beneficial or drive to much traffic to where we fail to execute the way we expect ourselves to.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I have long been a huge admirer of Danny Meyer and his success with Union Square Hospitality. They have created and operated some of my favorite restaurants in the country with their biggest focus on quality ingredients, execution and truly genuine hospitality.

His book ‘Setting the Table’ has been a required read for my managers for years and in my mind has been the benchmark book on what genuine hospitality is and directly correlates with our industry, but also can be applied to any industry.

As of 2022, Will Guidara wrote a book called ‘Unreasonable Hospitality’ which after reading, I am starting to see it as the more modern version of ‘Setting the Table’ because it relates to a more current mindset of those in the industry today. Again, it can be applied to any industry, but is an outstanding book and will likely become an additional read for all managers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.socialfortcollins.com & www.unionfortcollins.com
• Instagram: socialfortcollins & unionfortcollins
• Facebook: Can you look up the links and insert them, It may get messed up with me posting multiple