Prince

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The first thing you see is the smile. As you draw closer you realize you are looking up high to see it. Meet Prince Kayigire, the restauranteur behind the eclectic new Cultivar Café at the Molly Brown Summer Home Pavilion. A tall and genial man, Prince has a bright and shining vision of bringing elegance and fine foods, coffees and teas to the area. As his reputation grows as it surely will, we are sure that his influence will be felt far beyond our little corner of Lakewood. This is a man making big dreams come true! 

The corner of the Molly Brown Summer Home, located at Wadsworth and Yale, was damaged by a runaway car in 2019, and then everything in the world was damaged by COVID soon after. The outlook for the Summer House Museum, located in that fine old mansion, looked like it was fatally injured. The owner, Mary “Momo” Shearer, never gave up the hope of bringing it back but it was hard. Momo’s family bought the home in 1930, on the last parcel of the 320 acres formerly owned by Johnny and Margaret “Molly” Brown. They added the Pavilion, east of the house, as an event center in 2013. ¹ After 2020, that terrible year, it would take more than a dream to bring it back. As it turns out it’s underway with a lot of work, and not one dream but two – Momo’s and Prince’s – working together. 

Prince’s dream started in his mother’s kitchen in Rwanda. He recalls that as the youngest child in his family, he received lots of attention after his older brothers and sisters had moved on to further their educations. His mother had a special way of providing love and comfort through food, and he was an eager student of that fine art. His appreciation matured when he attended University in Rwanda, where he majored in Food Science and Nutrition. His passion led him to a postgraduate degree at Brandeis University in Boston, for a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development. From a kitchen in war-torn Rwanda as the country was going through spasms of post-war recovery, all the way to Lakewood, is quite a story. 

So… why Lakewood? Prince tells the story: a story of careful planning, determination, and working toward goals a step at a time. After completing his Master’s degree he returned to Rwanda. There was family, and there was a special girl who pulled his heart back home.  There, newly married, he thought about all the things he loved about the United States. With family in Fort Collins, and it was good to be close to them.  They initially lived there briefly before moving down to Denver. That was in downtown Denver and it was fine for a while, but then they wanted to find a perfect place to raise a young family, it took a lot of driving around to find Lakewood.. Nice homes, friendly and welcoming people. Perfect! Then there was that dream, to build a business serving food that people would love. That took more driving around, exploring. At the corner of Wadsworth and Yale, the Molly Brown house looked interesting. What’s in there? He soon met Momo Shearer, and – click! – two sets of dreams connected.  

Cultivar [ kuhl-tuh-vahr, -ver ]  noun. A variety of plant that originated and persisted under cultivation.

The Cultivar Café is a dream coming to life. Prince’s café was born out of a carefully cultivated idea, and like its namesake it is made to persist. Prince is a natural entrepreneur. He told me, “To visualize and bring a dream to life makes me feel fulfilled.” The unique aspect of Cultivar Café that Prince brings to it is the careful and focused attention to every detail in bringing uniquely distinctive tastes into a boutique dining experience. In starting a new business, there are challenges to be sure. The first, he told me, is overcoming market resistance. It’s hard for people to accept something new, and the entrepreneur has to work the gap between slowly building a client base and expenses that won’t wait. It’s good experience, he told me, and though it tests your patience it makes you keep your feet on the ground. Because of how he has worked into it, he says it is very gratifying that people are loving their experience.

The café is getting good reviews even in its current stage of building up from a small menu to a broader range of choices. Currently the offerings are a soup and salad bar with baked goods, as well as smoothies, cold-brewed coffee, and cold-brewed specialty tea selections. Prince is especially proud of his soups, and judging by customer reactions he has a magical touch with them. He credits his mother with that, from his childhood in Rwanda.

Later this month, Prince is expecting delivery and installation of new equipment. Arriving soon is the hot bar, and people will have a variety of options for brunch, lunch, and dinner, there will be grab and go options too, to greatly expand the selections available. “People should eat well for nutrition and health,” Prince says, “and the food has to be tasty.”

From restaurant and café talk we turned to another fascinating topic, his journey from Rwanda to the United States. The reason he likes living here, he said, is “People are nice here.” It’s easy to understand why Prince finds nice and friendly people wherever he goes, since he radiates such friendly kindness that it shines all around him. There is a story though, about Rwanda that many of us recall – a horrifying story of genocide, and then tumultuous years of reconciliation between former enemies. One must wonder, in talking with this kind and gentle man, how it affected him and his family. Prince wrote a book to tell the story. He titled it Prince.

Prince Kayigire’s book will be published in December. There will be a book launch event featuring Prince, the author, at the Cultivar Café on December 22, 2024. The event will be open to the public, though reservations will be needed. [Edited 12/5/24 to add link} This is a link for our readers to make reservations:  You are invited to a Memoir Launch.

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