Meet the Fabulous Foodpreneurs of Castle Rock, CO

These three small-business owners are helping to advance the creative food scene in Castle Rock.

By Amy Antonation on September 23, 2023

Brandon Cant

Whether you’re searching for a special bottle of wine, convenient meal-prep services or a food truck empire, look no further than Castle Rock, CO, where a wealth of creative food concepts are run by thriving entrepreneurs. Here, we introduce you to three who are making waves on the food scene in Castle Rock.

Cross Country Cuisine in Castle Rock

Brandon Cant didn’t start his professional life in the kitchen. He did some time as a server and bartender, but had a desk job when he moved to Colorado in 2017 and discovered Colorado green chile (with its flour-thickened base and chunks of pork shoulder, it’s a far cry from Mexican and Southwestern sauces of the same name).

Cant’s curiosity about regional foods was piqued, and he launched a YouTube channel exploring dishes from across the country, like Michigan’s pasties, Iowa’s loose meat sandwiches and Utah’s funeral potatoes.

That project proved to be the genesis of Coast2Coast food truck, which pivoted in 2021 to providing meal-prep services in and around Castle Rock. Now, Cant offers fully prepared individual and family meals, side dishes and prepped, marinated proteins ready to be cooked up at home.

“We want to make things easy for people,” Cant says. “We’re focused on convenience.”

Of competing with national meal-prep companies, Cant says, there’s an appreciable difference in the quality of his food. While bigger brands mass-produce meals in a factory, Coast2Coast’s entrees are cooked the same day they are delivered to customers.

It’s a winning formula: In April 2023, Cant quadrupled his space by moving from a 700-square-foot commercial kitchen into a 2,800-square-foot location and adding full-service catering.

Melissa Clement

Farm-to-Market Finds in Castle Rock

Melissa Clement was a corporate event planner for 25 years, but when the then-Massachusetts resident walked into a small specialty market that opened near her home, she knew a different path stretched out in front of her.

“It was around the time I was really getting into food and cooking,” she says. “I walked in and thought, ‘This is what I’m supposed to do for the rest of my life.’ There was no question in my mind.” 

Years later, after a move to Colorado and a year in culinary school (where she took all the business classes but only one kitchen class), she launched Farmgirl: Food, Wine, & Spirits in 2018. “I’ve grown and moved every year since,” she says proudly – though she insists she’s at her forever home, appropriately located on Ambrosia Street.

The 1,100-square-foot store offers a highly curated selection of wine and spirits as well as a small selection of local meats, cheeses, sauces, preserves “and snarky cards,” all chosen personally by Clement.

“I refuse to sell it unless I’ve tasted it,” she says. “I don’t want to have the normal stuff. People come to me because they want to find something different.”

Food Truck Avenue

The Pasta-bilities Are Endless in Castle Rock

For David Sevcik, a single food truck – Mac ‘N Noodles – was the beginning of a fleet of trucks that caters events in and around Castle Rock. After majoring in hospitality management, he moved to Colorado as a 23-year-old determined to obtain a loan and open an eatery. When banks didn’t jump at the chance to lend money to the restaurant rookie, he took the cheaper route and purchased a food truck out of which he sold the ultimate comfort food: macaroni and cheese.          

Sevcik originally launched Mac ‘N Noodles in Englewood, Colorado, in 2016, but quickly found Castle Rock was a better market for his blue and yellow truck.

“It’s a unique place in that people just love the outdoors,” Sevcik says of the town. “It’s a very family-oriented community. We started with mac and cheese – a very family-oriented concept – and looked at where the families were … Castle Rock is a better spot (than downtown Denver).”

Now, Sevcik has a second Mac ‘N Noodles truck, plus five additional trucks with separate concepts: The Burger Bus, the Colorado Pig Rig (pork tacos and barbecue), Capital City Wraps, Mile High Cheesesteaks and Denver Street Tacos.

While Mac ‘N Noodles will always be his favorite truck (“It’s my baby,” he says), they all shine in their own environment.

“It depends on the event,” he says of which concept is the most popular. “In a festival setting, nothing compares with Mac ‘N Noodles. For weddings, it’s the Pig Rig or Burger Bus. They’re all relatively equal. We’ve just learned in what environments they succeed.”