RESTAURANT NEWS | THE WEST
Old Cuss Cafe Gives Salt Lake Vegetarian Food a New Home
By Mei Chen | 5:33 a.m. MT, June 7, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: Mei Chen has worked for nearly a dozen start-ups in as many years, taking her to several West Coast cities. While she’s sure her current day job is permanent, she also has her eye on Carmel.
Old Cuss Cafe spent 11 months without a permanent address. Now founder Brent’Lee Williams and chef Chandler Bailey have turned a former coffee trailer into a downtown Salt Lake City café with breakfast, lunch, specialty drinks, and racks of vintage clothing between the tables.
The menu is entirely vegetarian, with vegan versions available at no extra charge and much of the cooking done from scratch. Breakfast runs from biscuits and gravy and the Cussin’ Hot Biscuit to chicken and waffles and a breakfast Dagwood. Later in the day, there are pickled fried green tomatoes, a beet Reuben, an Old Cuss burger, a patty melt, and a fried “chicken” sandwich.
Williams handles a coffee menu that has become as recognizable as the food. The signatures include a black currant latte, root beer chai, cereal milk latte, blueberry pie latte, strawberry moon matcha, and a cold brew named for Dolly Parton. House-made syrups also show up in Old Cuss’s Utah-style craft sodas.
Williams grew up in Kansas City around farmers, chefs, and artists and has worked in coffee and food for more than 17 years. Bailey, a Utah native, joined as an owner in 2023 after cooking around the Salt Lake Valley for more than a decade.
Their philosophy is simple: “Give a dang.” At Old Cuss, that means local eggs, dairy, honey, vegetables, and cheese when possible, along with a café meant to serve the people who live around it.
The trailer gave Old Cuss its start. The new place gives the idea enough room to become part restaurant, part coffee shop, part vintage store, and entirely itself.
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