Restaurant Review: Vegetarian Breakfast at Old Cuss Cafe 

• Alex Springer

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved a good Yellowstone trip. After a full day of appreciating frothing geysers, muddy paint pots and random wildlife sightings, spending the evening shopping amid all the deliberately rustic shops in West Yellowstone was a great way to unwind. Something about all those lacquered bears carved from tree stumps, fringed leather jackets and turquoise jewelry really drive home the fact that you are far from the metropolitan rat race.

For those who need a similar shot of nostalgic, DIY rusticism but don't have the time to jaunt up to a national park, consider checking out Old Cuss Cafe. Old Cuss is many things all at once: a vintage, locally-sourced art and clothing store; a coffee shop with a keen eye for quality; and a plant-based cafe open for breakfast and lunch. It had been on my radar for a bit, but I recently had a full day of work downtown and decided to swing by for a hearty breakfast to get things started on the right foot.

It's located in a hip little strip mall just off Main Street, but the wave of nostalgia is inescapable when you enter the space for the first time. Rows of locally-made clothes hang on the walls, along with plenty of excellent artwork and old-school antiquities. One would think that this additional merchandise would harsh the vibe of a city coffee shop and cafe, but it really doesn't. Despite its gruff-sounding name, Old Cuss is really quite comfortable and welcoming.

Their menu is straightforward enough, but each dish is packing some kind of flavorful surprise to keep things interesting. At the moment, everything on the Old Cuss menu is plant-based, but we can expect to see some local dairy and eggs making their way to the menu soon. I started things off with the Breakfast Dagwood ($14), the Old Cuss signature breakfast sandwich, and there is plenty to like about this. My current breakfast sandwich bracket has been pretty locked as of late, as I didn't really see much competition for my top five. However, after spending the morning with this little bit of genius, I have to say that number one spot might just be up for contention.

First off, they use a buttery—but not butter-y, since it's plant-based—homemade biscuit as the chassis for the whole affair. I go back and forth on the English muffin vs. biscuit debate as far as breakfast sandwiches go, but a really flaky, hot and structurally sound biscuit usually takes the win for me, and that's what you get here. Instead of egg, you have a nicely grilled square of tofu—a classic move for a plant-based sando—some vegan cheese that melts in all the right ways ... and then there's this mushroom jam.

We need to talk about the mushroom jam. Of all the savory jams I've had—bacon, tomato, etc.—I've felt that there was some kind of obligation to make them sweeter than they had to be. Jam kind of lends itself to that interpretation, I suppose. In this case, it's a jam that doesn't try to dilute all that savory mushroom flavor with pectin and sugar. I'm not saying that sweet jam doesn't slap when you put it on a biscuit, but what I am saying is that the Old Cuss team has invented spreadable mushroom gravy. Many have tried to add the biscuits-and-gravy component to a breakfast sandwich only to have the entire situation dissolve into a gloopy mess. The secret is mushroom jam and it's delicious.

Though the Breakfast Dagwood had me rethinking the entirety of my breakfast sandwich schema, I also have to give some love to the home fries take on French fries as a side dish. Why there aren't more attempts to make French fries adopt the crisp, peppery flavor of home fries is beyond me. They don't always have to be little nubbins of new potatoes, everyone! They can be French fries! The potato continues to be one of our most versatile root vegetables!

I couldn't leave without trying one of the sweeter options on the menu, and the horchata waffle ($10) caught my eye. Its homemade waffle batter incorporates just enough cinnamon to earn the horchata in its title, and it comes hot and crispy right off the waffle iron. It's got some fresh berries, maple syrup and a bit of creamy not-butter-butter, and it's an excellent specimen of what a waffle should be.

As Old Cuss is much more than the sum of its parts, we can always look forward to some of the cool events they'll be hosting in the next few weeks. In addition to having some new vegetarian options on the menu, they'll be hosting a night market and burger night on June 30, complete with local vendors, tasty plant-based burgers and a few milkshake varieties for good measure.

Admittedly, I didn't quite know what to expect when I visited Old Cuss Cafe, but I think that's a big part of its charm. You go in for a cup of coffee, and end up learning that home fries have every right to be picked up and eaten by hand and that mushroom gravy can definitely be a spreadable condiment.