06-05-2025
Rags to riches: a local business owner's story
(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Mitchell Yellen was abandoned at the age of 11 by his mother at a Boy Scout camp in New York, and left with a father whom he couldn't rely on.
Yellen said, 'I just remember eating Swanson TV dinners every night, which is what we had. We didn't have a lot of money. My father worked very hard, but he was very distant, not very emotional. So I was never connected with him, wasn't really connected with him his whole life. I was on my own, and it made me very independent.'
Yellen never graduated from high school or college. However, he went west to California to pursue Hollywood and was even signed by John Travolta's manager.
There, he said he was on the wrong path, but after meeting his wife and reconnecting with God started in the investment world.
In the early 2000's Yellen moved to Colorado and started with buying his first business, Taylor Fencing.
Since then, he has started a wedding event center in Black Forest, The Garden of the Gods Cafe, The Till, and many more businesses.
'What's that old saying, adapt, migrate, or become extinct. And I decided to adapt.' Yellen commented, 'I went through a lot of challenges as a result of that because my childhood was filled with drugs, and I found myself really stumbling through life, never went to college, never went to high school, so I was just trying to figure things out.'
His most recent venture is the Courtyard Collective, Opening on Sunday, May 18.
Complete with pickle ball courts out front and plenty of patio room– The Courtyard Collective will have Dad's Donuts and The Garden of the God's Cafe for the morning, Campfire Pizza, an event hall, and a restaurant with a menu created by a chef who was trained in Michelin-star restaurants.
FOX21 News sat down with the owner and head chef, who walked us through the one-of-a-kind sourcing system they created to ensure the food is fresh, clean, and sustainably sourced as it gets.
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