Exploring Life & Business with Jesse Turkus of Colorado Hots

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jesse Turkus

Hi Jesse, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I‘ve been in the hospitality industry since I was 15 years old. My teenage summers were spent working as a back waiter in fine dining restaurants in my home state of Connecticut. After college, I pursued an opportunity to work for Club Med, an international vacation resort company, which paired my experience in hospitality with other passions like golfing and skiing. I spent winters in Crested Butte and summers in Florida as a sports instructor and host for Club Med’s guests.

Eventually, I landed in Lake Tahoe, where I started my first fine-dining server position at The Wild Goose. I was really motivated by the passionate staff there, and this pushed me to follow a path to many other high-end establishments, including Oak Steakhouse in Charleston, as well as Rioja and The Capital Grille in Denver. I also achieved my level 2 Sommelier through the International Wine Guild in 2013.

In 2015, my wife and I had our first child and I knew I had to change my schedule to accommodate our family’s lifestyle. Since moving to Colorado from Charleston, SC, I noticed how few fried chicken restaurants were available here in comparison to Charleston. I always played with the thought of franchising one of those South Carolina restaurants out here, but there was no way I could afford one. It wasn’t until I met my business partner Mathew Yamali that I could create a path toward owning my own business.

We started Downtown Fingers food truck in 2019, bought a trailer in 2021, and collaborated with a friend/former employee to open Super Smash Burgers food truck in 2022. With so many different trucks and concepts, we needed to find a central location to prepare the trucks for service. That is what led us to our restaurant space for Colorado Hots.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As most businesses do, we had our challenges. Food trucking is not an easy industry. You not only need to be a chef, but a mechanic.

The positive part about the food trucks is that they help with our restaurant and vice versa. Sharing expenses among multiple businesses has helped ease the burden of opening a brand-new restaurant concept. There are many similarities between food trucks and restaurants, but there are also key differences. With food trucks, the sales often come to you, but with restaurants, you have to bring them in yourself, so getting the word out about who you are and what you do is important.

As you know, we’re big fans of Colorado Hots. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Colorado Hots is an Upstate New York restaurant. My business partner and I grew up going to restaurants where the most important aspect was the food. You could tell the moment you walked in that the owners cared about the food they put out and other restaurant focuses were secondary.

A Hots restaurant is a type of restaurant from Rochester, NY. Back home, we have about 30 different Hots places. It’s a staple in each community that typically serves wings, garbage plates, Zweigles and chicken finger subs. Here at Co Hots we are true to that concept and we bring in all the good stuff from Rochester. Zweigles have been around since 1880, and the Garbage plate since 1918. We make traditional wings from WNY, The fried chicken wing was invented in Buffalo, NY in the 60s, I grew up there so we are keeping it as authentic as possible.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
My family is the most important thing to me. I started working for myself so that I could control my schedule and be with my family at the most important times. Owning the food trucks has allowed me to take the winters off, while my wife (a school administrator) has the summers off. Now, with the restaurant, I hope have a more consistent schedule and to bring my two sons in to create a good work ethic at an early age.

Pricing:

• Chicken wings
• G Plates
• Chicken Finger Subs
• Chicken Fingers, Nuggets, and fried Cauliflower
• All our prices include tax

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.coloradohots.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coloradohotss
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Colorado-Hots-61569161256561/