Owners of Fidel’s Cocina in Palisade found ‘special’ place to open Italian restaurant in Fruita

Tim Harty, The Business Times

The idea of opening a second restaurant struck Jody Corey first, but her husband, Jeff Snook, wasn’t convinced that was a good idea.

That was until the co-owners of Fidel’s Cocina & Bar in Palisade went to Fruita to view the building at 169 S. Mulberry St. Then, Snook got on board. There, they both saw an Italian restaurant where an auto-repair shop, among other things, had previously resided.

“When we saw the space, it really struck us as being something special,” Corey said. “We enjoy remodeling old buildings and old properties, and we saw the potential in this space.” 

They bought the building in December 2024 and got to work on what would become Josephine’s Italian Restaurant, which they opened for business Oct. 14.

They knew one thing for sure about what they didn’t want in their new restaurant. They didn’t want it to be a second Fidel’s Cocina, which serves Latin-inspired food.

“When we were thinking about a new concept, we didn’t want to replicate what we had at Fidel’s,” Corey said. “We do think it’s a unique spot, and if we replicated it again, we would probably be cannibalizing our own business.”

The new restaurant had to be different, and they settled on Italian cuisine for two main reasons. One, they said Fruita lacks Italian restaurants, so there’s a need. Two, Corey grew up in an Italian family, eating Italian food and making it in Queens, N.Y.

When Corey said, “I’ve eaten Italian food almost my whole life,” Snook couldn’t help but say, “I wouldn’t say ‘almost.’” Corey then corrected herself with: “My whole life.”

That also made naming the restaurant easy. They chose Josephine’s in honor of Corey’s grandmother Josephine.

“Growing up, my grandma lived two houses away from me, my grandma and grandfather, and I was there all the time, and we had a huge Italian family, and her spot was the house, so people were there all the time,” Corey said. “I think that really taught me how to be hospitable.

“When people came into her house, there was always food for them. She welcomed them, whether they were dirty or dressed up. You know, there was just that feeling of warmth that we want Josephine’s and Fidel’s to really have that, where they walk in and we treat our guest as family.”

Snook added Josephine’s family-oriented style of cooking is how he and Corey like to eat.

“When we go with our friends, even our employees, when we sit down with everybody it’s lots of portions, lots of plates, but small portions, so everybody gets to taste it,” he said.

That inspired the menu at Josephine’s, as Snook added, “You can get through the whole menu pretty easily, so you can taste everything.”

Josephine’s menu is still a work in progress, so Corey and Snook ask that customers be patient. Something on the menu a week ago might disappear as they determine what’s working and selling, what should be staples and what should rotate.

For certain, though, everything will be made from scratch. Customers can expect there will be four to five pasta dishes, several varieties of wood-fired pizza, a couple salads and a couple desserts offered.

A member of the wait staff on Oct. 21 passed along to Corey and Snook that a customer raved about that evening’s limoncello dessert.

They liked hearing that, and they welcome honest feedback from customers. It’s OK to say you didn’t like something, but Corey asks that criticism also comes with understanding.

“Be honest with us about how things are, whether it’s good or bad, so we can grow,” Corey said. “Give us some grace in the beginning.” 

“I think that’s all any restaurateur would want to hear is: Give us some grace in the beginning,” Snook added. “Let us know if it’s good or bad, because you’re not going to hurt our feelings, and help us grow to be better than we were yesterday.”

Yes, that’s a garage door

Because one of the previous business iterations at 169 S. Mulberry St. in Fruita was an auto-repair shop, the building has a huge garage door facing Mulberry Street.

And Josephine’s Italian Restaurant co-owners Jody Corey and Jeff Snook kept the feature. Now, it serves as a wall of windows letting in natural light, but it does still open and close.

“We imagine we would be having that open at some point,” Corey said.

Or maybe not.

“We actually don’t know if the garage door is a great idea, because: Is it too cold? Is it too hot? Is it air conditioning? Do we have bugs? So we’re not sure.”

Intensive renovation

One of the things Corey and Snook loved about the building is it provided a blank slate for the interior design. Of course, that also meant substantial investment in additions and updates.

“We had to invest a good amount of money to put in the infrastructure to open a restaurant,” Corey said. “We had to install a new hood system, heating and cooling, all the bathrooms, a commercial kitchen requires a lot of plumbing for hand sinks and dishwashers and things like that, and then the bar systems.

“So, we felt, after owning Fidel’s, this is our opportunity to design around the cuisine we’re going to have and then the space that we want to have.”

Snook added Fidel’s Cocina was different, because they lease that building, and it was already a restaurant when they took it over.

“We were a little limited on what we were wanting to invest into it,” he said.

For Josephine’s, Snook echoed Corey in calling it a blank slate.

“We got to do whatever we wanted, within financial constraints, of course, because we don’t have that kind of money,” he said “But it was literally walking in to say, ‘This is a blank slate. We get to do what we want and how we want.’

“So, we’ve spent a lot of time really trying to think about how it’s set up, the dining experience, the heating and cooling, the ambiance, the sound, the light. There was a lot of thought and a big team behind us to help make that happen.”

A little help from a friend

For pizza making, Josephine’s has a wood-fire oven and will serve Neapolitan-style pizza, using dough from Italy.

Corey said Snook’s best friend, Frank Linn, came to Fruita and helped consult, because he owns a pizza restaurant called Frankly Pizza in Kensington, Md.

“He is a pizza whiz,” she said. “He helped us with the dough, made sure that it worked with this altitude and our climate, humidity effects or lack of humidity effects on pizza dough, and he came to train our staff prior to us opening.”