Golden Goodness Dishes Out Gourmet Grilled Cheese and a Helping Hand

All it took was a lot of melted cheese for Matthew James to combine his passions into a successful business.

He started out in Ontario, Canada, but his father's career as a civil engineer often demanded relocation, eventually taking the family to North Carolina. "We got to Charlotte when I started high school," James recalls. "I did my bachelor's and master's degrees and got my doctorate there. I studied special education and educational leadership, so I've worked primarily with people with disabilities."

But a few years ago, James felt a growing desire for a change of scenery. "At the time, I was primarily doing consulting and working on several Medicaid grants, and one of them was related to transitional services for people coming out of institutional settings and moving into community-based settings," he says. With that grants project coming to a close and unsure of his next steps, he reached out to his sister in Castle Rock, who encouraged him to venture west and consider new career options.

"I've worked around food quite a bit in my life," he says. "I worked at Golden Corral, which was my first job, worked in grocery stores, and then when I worked in disability services, I oversaw our kitchen staff and kitchen production. We were a residential facility, operated 24/7, and did meal production for all the people living there.

"I've personally loved cooking my whole life, was always in the kitchen with my mom and grandmother or grilling outside with my dad," he continues. "And that kind of spurred the idea of how am I going to connect my passions and food and disability services?"

He finally focused on a food truck. "I wanted to do something that was kid- and family-friendly, but also kind of gave you a flashback to when you were a kid. And to me, that's a grilled cheese sandwich," he says. "That's my childhood memory of comfort food. And so I was like, 'Hey, I want to do grilled cheeses but I want to elevate this, I want to make this something where people keep coming back for it.'"

He started developing a menu that would do just that. "My sister and I invited all the neighbors over one evening and said, 'Hey, we're going to do like a menu development night.' I had worked on a few of these grilled cheese sandwich concoctions, and we threw them all together and created a menu that night," he recalls. "Most of the feedback was positive. There was a tweak here or there, and then it was like, we're ready to go and put things in motion."

After spending three months building out a trailer, James officially launched the Golden Goodness food truck in February 2023, basing the business in the Johnstown area. "Part of the mission of the food truck is we work with the School to Work Alliance Program, which helps people with disabilities find meaningful employment. That's kind of why we opened the food truck, to be able to offer employment opportunities to people with barriers to getting employment," he explains. "We hired two people last year who were able to come out of the program and join the food truck, and we're working to bring on some more. So my doctorate in special education and educational leadership kind of melded into the food truck world a little bit."

Beyond helping people with disabilities gain meaningful employment, Golden Goodness is also satisfying people's cravings for grilled cheese sandwiches, including the fan-favorite Pickles Back, which comes with Dijon mustard, dill pickle slices, cheddar and havarti cheeses on sourdough bread. Another hit is the Caprese. "We do a really good Caprese sandwich with fresh-cut tomatoes, basil pesto, and fresh mozzarella on roasted garlic bread," says James.

And then there's the Hatch. "I mean, we're in Colorado, can't go wrong with green chile," he says. "We do a pepper Jack with cheddar and Hatch green chile on our Asiago bread with a parmesan crust."

Now, a little over a year into the operation, James is happy that he's been able to meld his passions into a successful venture. "For me, the big events are the most fun," he says. "I just feel like we are immersed in the community and just a part of all the activities."

He's now turning an old fire truck into a new food truck, and plans to pop into metro Denver more regularly. "The more business we can do," he concludes, "the more we can impact people with disabilities and those needing a second chance for employment."

And a really good grilled cheese.

Check goldengoodnesseats.com for the food truck's weekly schedule.