When he was a kid growing up in Ogden, Nathan Sato made memories playing basketball, squash and racquetball in the now-defunct Deseret Gym.
Years later, he still spends a lot of time in the very location that housed the gym, but now it’s home to Cuppa, the cafe he and his wife Bec opened a few months ago.
According to Cuppa manager, Cori McKenna, “We’re a cafe for creatives. We want people who draw or paint to make music or any number of creative pursuits. We want them to be able to do that in a comfortable, relatively quiet and safe environment.”
The fact that the cafe menu is completely plant-based and organic, with a number of gluten-free options, adds to its uniqueness.
“We have a lot of really high-quality offerings on the menu. You know whatever you eat here, it’s going to be the absolute highest quality you can get,” McKenna said.
It’s an interesting road that has brought Nathan Sato back to the place of his childhood memories, he said. A few years ago, his wife, who is in the middle of writing a science fiction novel, had a dream about a cafe called Writer’s Cuppa. In the dream, the cafe was a bright, light place that encouraged creativity. She woke up from that dream feeling like she wanted to make that cafe a reality.
The Satos decided to move from South Jordan to Ogden. They found a home in the Jefferson District and shortly afterward found the building on 552 S. 25th St., where they would eventually open Cuppa.
“I’ve been a vegan for about eight years,” Sato said. “My wife is not, but part of the deal is if she wanted my help we had to do (the cafe menu) plant-based.”
They realized going into it that they were taking a risk creating something that may or may not fly in the area, Sato noted.
“We weren’t sure how we were going to be received out there, but we took the risk and did it anyway. And now we have people coming up from Salt Lake saying, “We’ve heard so many good things about you. We are thrilled you guys are here.”
Sato said the timing of opening Cuppa, along with the location they found, just seemed to be right, not only in their lives, but in terms of the revitalization currently taking place in Ogden.
“One of the things about our neighborhood and Ogden in general is there’s so much going on, and if you’re the kind of person that’s willing to put something out there and take a little bit of a risk, the opportunity is here.”
Along with the menu, another important aspect of Cuppa is its inviting environment. Sato said he really didn’t want the cafe to be a grab and go place, but something more.
McKenna agreed. “We’re not a utility. We’re a community space.”
Sato strongly believes that creativity builds upon itself and the more creativity you get in one place, the more that will result.
“I think that when you go into other coffee shops, especially mainstream ones, there’s a set amount of distance between everybody there. We wanted to break that down. We wanted to get people mingling and talking and interacting with each other. I think getting that creativity flowing is the energy we hope stays here.”
Adding to the creative vibe of the place, Cuppa has live music every Friday night, performed by a variety of local artists. A black baby grand piano housed on the upper level of the two-story cafe has a tie-in to Sato’s history, as well. The instrument has been in his family for many years.
Standing by the piano, he looks around the cafe and notes that he’s so happy that his wife’s dream and his memories have combined to bring about this business.
“It’s really fun to have a space that we can share that way.”
Food is an important part of creating a space where people are going to want to come, he added. One of the most popular items on the Cuppa menu are the street tacos, made with barbecue jackfruit, cherry tomatoes, house-made cole slaw, salsa and avocado.
Sato pointed out that having high-quality bread has been his priority from the cafe’s inception, so he decided to learn how to make bread. He passed that knowledge onto all his employees and all the bread served at the cafe is homemade. Soups are also made in-house each day.
“I haven’t gotten negative feedback about anything on the menu,” McKenna says. “Everyone loves everything.”
In addition to anticipating continued success at Cuppa, Sato plans to open a market right next door.
“It’s going to be called Provisions,” he said. It’s going to be a corner market for the neighborhood — a daily market where you get your staples — your provisions for the day.”
He also plans to include some hard-to-find boutique items in the new store and sell soft-serve organic ice cream.
He said he would like to have the market up and running as soon as possible.
