Meet Joyce Morris

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joyce Morris.

Hi Joyce, 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 started my cooking journey when I decided to attend Colorado Mountain College in Dillon, CO for Culinary Arts. I graduated in 2010 and shortly after moved to Sarasota, FL for a change of scenery and to work for the Ritz Carlton. Over the next four years, I moved back to Colorado and also to Providence, Rhode Island, cooking in a dive bar, serving at a fancy restaurant, working at Farmer’s Markets, and in bakeries while continuing my education. In 2015, I briefly moved to Panama to work at a Hostel and traveled around in Costa Rica too. When I came home, my now husband, Shane, and I started our first restaurant, Cultivate Cafe, in Destin, FL. We operated there for about a year and a half before deciding to move back to where we met, here, in Silverthorne, CO. At first, we went back to old jobs, saving money and enjoying the freedom of less responsibility, but eventually, an opportunity that we couldn’t pass up presented itself.

In June of 1018, Shane and I opened our window inside of Angry James Brewery. Cultivate is a small restaurant operation that serves dishes like Bahn Mi Bison Brats, 3 Bean Butternut Squash Chili, Beet Sliders, BBQ Pulled Pork Tacos and Sweet Potato Curry Hummus. Our menu frequently changes, with the season but also with whatever I’m inspired by. We make everything that we can from scratch, including Spicy Beer Mustard, made with the Angry James Pilsner, Pickled Veggies, and the Pizza Sauce for our Flat Breads. We also source what we can locally. We get our Bavarian Pretzels, Focaccia Bread, Chili Bread Bowls, and Flat Breads from a Styria Bakery II in Denver, our Jalapeño Cheddar Bison Brats from House of Smoke, in Fort Lupton and in the summer we shop at our local’s farmers market in Dillon for most of our produce. Recently I’ve been teaching zoom cooking classes. It’s a great way to get people together for some social time, but also so special to introduce people to new healthy recipes that they can cook at home.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Looking back, I can’t complain about much. Of course, there has been a financial strain, and months and months without days off, lots of 12-hour shifts, and plenty of stress. We really just had the normal bumps in the road, except for tearing my meniscus three weeks before our opening date while trying to move a grill, so I had to open the restaurant on crutches. And then there’s Covid and the shutdowns, but all of the restaurant industry is in the same boat, and we are a strong group of people that know how to make it work.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At Cultivate, we make quality, delicious food for you to enjoy alongside a craft beer. We don’t serve your typical bar/brewery food. We have lots of veggie options and like to put a twist on things. Our Cultivate logo has a beet on it, so I feel like we always have to have at least one beet menu item on at all times, which isn’t hard since I love beets. We have served many people their first beets and have also been told that we have made some beet lovers out of beet haters. It makes me happy to know by sharing my passion for food that I’m also spreading nourishment and opening people’s minds to new foods.

What makes you happy?
Cooking. Simply just cooking is my happy place. Of course, cooking in my home kitchen and jamming out to Missy Elliott while rolling up some mushroom wontons is much more than slinging tacos, pretzels, and cast iron cookies in a busy brewery setting, but I still enjoy it both ways. It’s a mindful, intentional process for me. I love sharing my food with people. I love seeing their reaction as they take their first bite of a Green Chile Flatbread or seeing their eyes light up as we bring them an oven-fresh cookie with a melting scoop of ice cream on it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://angryjamesbrewing.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/cultivate_kitchen instagram.com/rot.in.health

Image Credits
Shane Morris Silverthorne Photography