Today we’d like to introduce you to Ty Fulcher.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Ty. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Since I was a kid, I would always play restaurant and charge my family for the food that was in the pantry. I started working in my first restaurant at the age of 14 back in Gig Harbor, Washington. Prepping, Dish, Expo, you name it. I immediately fell in love with not only the fast pace of it but the people in the industry. It is a very tight-knit group that can only be described as a family. Especially since oftentimes you end up spending more time with these people than your immediate family anyway. I moved to Colorado in 2002 to go to school at CSU. In 2004 I moved to Italy for a study abroad program and began to study culinary with the main focus on wine. After returning, I went through the Court of Master Sommeliers Level 1 and Certified Level and began to solely focus on wine and spirits.
Throughout all of this, I had been drawing up plans for my own place at some point, and in 2013 finally found a location to open Social. Social is an underground cocktail bar inspired by prohibition. We have been open for seven years now and it has been one of the most rewarding and incredible things I have ever had the opportunity to do. We have won many awards and national recognition fully due to our staff’s passion and dedication to hospitality and the craft of spirits and bartending. In 2018 we opened Union Bar & Soda Fountain which a modern take on the classic American Soda Fountain and Diner. It has been an amazingly fun project, not only due to the development of the land and design of the building but also because of the pure size of the operation. We seat 175 guests inside and then, during the summer, open up the patio to seat an additional 125 guests. It has been an absolute blast.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
As with any business, there are always struggles. HR, rising costs of both goods as well as labor, marketing properly and staying relevant. Luckily we have not had to endure a whole lot of obstacles because we try to stay one step ahead whenever we can. A lot of our focus also is quality and hospitality. As long as we keep our quality of our food and drink at the level we require and show guests genuine hospitality then they are sure to return and enjoy each and every visit.
That being said, this current day, we are dealing with by far the biggest challenge that we could have ever imagined, the COVID-19 shutdown. We are taking this step by step, day by day, and literally hour by hour as there are so many developments that continuously have changed our operations and finally overall ceased them.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success in my mind is finding a career that doesn’t feel like work. I look forward every day and night to go to work and spend the night creating memories with our guests getting to be do it with my best friends (i.e. my staff). I won the lottery of careers, without a doubt.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1 Old Town Square #7
Fort Collins, CO 80524 - Website: www.socialfortcollins.com
- Phone: 970.449.5606
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: socialfortcollins
- Facebook: @socialfortcollins
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/social-fort-collins
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