We were lucky to catch up with Brent’lee Williams recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Brent’lee , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Opening a restaurant/cafe is a risk in itself the profit margin is so small. A successful day can literally mean 2 customers come in. I think risk is part of the daily for us. We started as a trailer during the pandemic and then jumped into a brick and mortar. I have learned a lot and made a lot of mistakes in the process. Everyday I ask myself what do we need to do to push ourselves forward and to have a bigger impact. Our current risk was opening our doors up for concerts but it’s honestly been great and the local music scene is fantastic. This summer we push forward with growing all our own produce planting 20 garden beds but again it’s a risk that we must take because we believe in sustainability and quality of product. So my advice is take the risk, if you fail then at least you know you tried. Does not mean you won’t end up selling your truck to pay rent but you will always know that you gave it your all.

Brent’lee , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve been in coffee/cafes for 17 years now, I was raised by a parents that always tried for their dreams no matter the cost and it did cost. My business partner Chef Chandler has been cooking for 10 years and has focused heavily on vegetarian/vegan cuisine.
A rule we have at Old cuss is if we don’t make it from scratch then we get it from someone who does. We are always trying to innovate and create. No short cuts. We make our biscuits from scratch daily, our vegan egg is made from scratch. We get our eggs locally from roots farm and our toast comes from Mims(a fantastic local bread baker)
We are planting 20 beds to grow our own produce. We use recipes from my mom’s jam to my Memas peanut butter balls. Milk comes from rosehill and cheese come from Logan ut. We also run a vintage/antique store out of the shop with multiple local business woman running thier own booths. This may seem like a lot but it’s just the start. This places has barely scratched the service of what we are going to do. So come in and give us a shot but know it’s always moving forward we are an iceberg wearing a cowboy hat! Let’s giddy up.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Pivot might as well be my name. We started as a trailer, that hit black ice and got totaled. Then I got hit by a manivan on my motorcycle and I had to rethink everything personally. Then we opened as a vegan spot which was a pivot from the trailers Omni menu. Then last year we moved to a vegetarian menu adding local dairy, eggs and cheese. Each of these things had its set back but we just kept going. There will be more challenging things ahead and we will be ready to hop to the next challenge. Small businesses is not set up for success, so ya gotta get crafty and give it your all till ya can’t any longer. A great concept, atmosphere and menu won’t get ya where you need to go. It takes grit and stubbornness to get there and by golly do we have a ways to go still.
Here’s to the tornadoes that will sweep ya up and spit ya out, where are we? I don’t know but we’re still alive.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

For me this business is very personal, I have given everything I have other than my sweet pup to this place. Due to this I have been very emotional and attached. In the start I was a fish outta water and thought I knew so much but I actually knew so little. I truly loved my team and still do but with that I brought bad habits from my family dynamics as a kid and I would be too honest and I would lose my cool and that is never ok. It’s a privilege to get to serve and get to have employees but don’t let your emotions and commitment to the business turn you into a jerk or a hot head. The hot head chef/boss is tiresome and worn out. Use that passion to support your team and partner. If you can’t harness it, you will fail and it will be lonesome.

Contact Info:

• Website: Oldcuss.com
• Instagram: Oldcusslc
• Facebook: Old cuss cafe
• Yelp: Old cuss cafe
• Other: Happy cow and google

Image Credits
Mia Bookstaber and my iPhone